Thirty Suspects Arrested In Sagamu Over Naira Notes Swap Riot
Thirty Suspects Arrested In Sagamu Over Naira Notes Swap Riot

Thirty Suspects Arrested In Sagamu Over Naira Notes Swap Riot

Thirty Suspects Arrested In Sagamu Over Naira Notes Swap Riot

Police have arrested 30 suspected over naira swap riot, following the violent attacks at Sagamu in Ogun State, on Monday, by protesters against the scarcity of the newly designed bank notes and the rejection of old notes by banks.

Three branches of banks were vandalised and set on fire, while the secretariat of the Sagamu local government was vandalized and its legislative maze carted away by protesters.

The spokesman of the state police command, Abimbola Oyeyemi said the Ogun State Police Commissioner, Frank Mba, led a joint police-military team to tackle the rioters.

He said the situation in the town was now under control. Police and soldiers are now patrolling major streets in the town.

The violent protests started after banks rejected old naira notes and customers could not withdraw from their deposits in banks, either on-the-counter or from the automated teller machine.

The protests started near the palace of the Akarigbo of Remoland by youths making bonfire on roads and barricading them.

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The protest later spread to the GRA, Sabo and to the some of the branches of banks in the town which were set ablaze.

They also blocked the busy Sagamu-Ijebu Ode expressway, causing traffic gridlock.

Disturbed by the level of the protests, the Akarigbo of Remoland, Oba Babatunde Ajayi, asked residents in the town to stop the violent protests.

According to the paramount ruler, the naira swap policy which was the subject of the protests was not initiated by the state or local governments.

He asked them to continue spending the old naira notes in line with the directive of the Supreme Court, assuring them that they would be redeemed.

The Sagamu violent protest was the third in the state in the past two weeks over the naira swap policy.

The first was in Abeokuta, the state capital, during which some of the banks came under attack and a man shot by security forces.

Later, violent protesters last week blocked the Mowe-Ibafo axis of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and Papalanto-Ifo on the Abeokuta-Sango-Ota expressway.

Governor Abiodun had called for calm, as moves are being made to resolve the crisis created by the CBN policy, which had caused untold hardships to the people in the state.

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