By Victor Akinkuolie, Ado-Ekiti
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The Ekiti State House of Assembly has passed a resolution urging the State’s Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Mr. Akintunde Oyebode, to set machinery in motion to regulate the activities of Point of Sale (POS) operators with a view to saving the people from exploitation.
The house, during the preliminary urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to obey the Supreme Court ruling to allow the old and new N500 and N1,000 notes to be in circulation until the suit before the apex court is determined.
The plenary presided over by the Speaker, Olubunmi Adelugba, appealed to the people of the state to remain calm in the face of hardship they are going through over the scarcity of new notes, urging them not to be provoked into engaging in activities that could lead to breakdown of law and order.
The Assembly equally urged the people of the state to take the forthcoming general elections seriously and exercise their civic right of voting responsibly at the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections and March 11 State House of Assembly election.
Expressing their concerns and worries on the suffering of the people of the state on the scarcity of the new Naira notes, the Ekiti lawmakers urged the federal authorities and the apex bank to obey the rule of law as enunciated by the Supreme Court ruling to bring relief to the beleaguered masses.
The motion calling on the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria to make the Naira notes available was moved by the lawmaker representing Ekiti East Constituency 2, Lateef Akanle and seconded by the lawmaker representing Irepodun/Ifelodun Constituency 1, Femi Akindele.
In his lead debate, Akanle, who is also the Chairman of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, said nobody in Nigeria can pretend that all is well with the present situation of the country which he described as “precarious.”
The Speaker, Adelugba, in her remarks, while showing her empathy on the present situation on the currency crisis, urged the people of Ekiti State to be calm and not to be forced to take the law into their hands.
