A viral video showing bundles of new Naira notes at Sterling Bank Branch, Ado Ekiti has surfaced on lline on Sunday.
The video further confirms the widely held view that the commercial banks are blocking access of Nigerians to the new Naira notes and inflicting hardship on the people.
A Central Bank of Nigeria monitoring team uncovered the new notes at a Sterling Bank Branch at Bank Road, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State.
The officials of the bank refused to dispense the money through its five Automated Teller Machines for about two weeks in a flagrant violation of the directive of the CBN.
A male voice in the video who identified himself as a Deputy Director of the CBN, Mr Oluwole Owoeye, said the bank officials claimed that the ATMs were yet to be configured.
Owoeye who accused the bank of deliberately hoarding the new Naira notes said the bank has no excuse for keeping the money it has been receiving for two weeks without dispensing it to the public.
He accused the Deposit Money Banks of frustrating the efforts of the CBN to make the new notes available to Nigerians.
“I’m currently at Sterling Bank, Bank Road, Ado-Ekiti as part of this monitoring compliance with the guidelines by CBN. They have N6 million, which they collected from Central Bank of Nigeria for about two weeks but never disbursed any.
“They said they are yet to configure the ATM. I don’t know why that is so. I brought their attention to the penalty clause of N1 million per day because they have five ATMs. So, they don’t have any reason for keeping this money.
“The Zonal Service Manager, Kunle Onipede, promised that latest 10am tomorrow, because I promised them that I will be here by 10am and I want to see the machine dispensing this money.
“This is Olumide Owolabi, Service Manager, Ado, and Motunrayo Babayemi.
“My name is Owoeye, I am a Deputy Director from CBN.”