Pre-election crisis: CLO lauds South-East residents for tolerance, restraint

The Civil Liberties Organization (CLO), has hailed South-East residents on civility, maturity and restrain in the face of hardship occasioned by the scarcity of new naira notes and Petrol Motor Spirit (PMS).

The Chairman of CLO Anambra, Comrade Vincent Ezekwueme, gave the commendation while speaking in Enugu on Sunday.

Ezekwueme spoke on the sidelines of the recent developments that had disrupted life-style of most residents of the zone.

According to him, most pathetic and despicable is that citizens find it very difficult, if not impossible, to access both old and new naira notes from banks and go ahead to buy money.

“We thank the residents of the zone for their perseverance, resilient, tolerance and patience as most of them wait for more than eight hours in banks without success.

“We appeal to them to sustain and maintain their peaceful deposition as violence is the worst form of irresponsibility and lawlessness.

“There is no doubt in our minds that the problem will soon fizzle out,” he said.

The CLO chairman acknowledged the efforts of government and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to mitigate and ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians.

“But more concerted and collaborative efforts should be geared towards monitoring the disbursement of the new naira notes by bank managers, especially in the South-East.

“Information at our disposal indicates that their dishonest disbursement of the new notes contributed immensely to the artificial scarcity of money that has exacerbated the sufferings and predicament of the citizens.

“They (banks) should update CBN on daily basis with names and account numbers of those that withdraw money. This will curtails the money getting into the hands of few influential people to the detriment of the citizens,” he said.

Ezekwueme, however, appealed to the Federal Government and NNPC to tackle high cost of petroleum products in the country even as there is no official increment.