New Naira Notes Scarcity: Presidential Candidates Own Banks — Kwankwaso

As citizens continue to groan over the hardship brought about by the scarcity of the new naira notes, Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has alleged that some presidential candidates are owners of banks.

Speaking on Channels TV's breakfast show 'Sunrise Daily' on Thursday, Kwankwaso criticised the deadline extension for the old notes.

According to him, only the masses have been affected and not the political elites who own banks.

“I can tell you, from our investigation, what the government is saying has to do with people who would want to take too much money; lead us in politics.

"They don’t know that many of our colleagues, those who are contesting, especially presidential candidates, and by extension, all those in their parties, are owners of the banks.

“Not only that, people close to them are having banks everywhere. So, they would lose nothing.

"And they have governors. PDP has governors, APC has governors. 

"And I am sure by now they would have collected so much money from the banks in their states.

“Up till now, there are many states, especially in northern Nigeria, where local governments have no single bank.

“And in some areas, even the local government headquarters is well over 100km away and it becomes extremely difficult for them to take their money.

“We are not talking about big businessmen. We are talking about petty traders with a capital of N5,000 and even less.

"Now, if you give them three months, it would be very difficult for the information to reach them”, he stated.