Some presidential candidates are bank owners, not affected by Naira redesign – Kwankwaso

The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwaso has claimed that some of his contemporaries will not be affected by the naira redesign policy as “they are owners of banks”.

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in October 2022 announced plans to redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes.

Nigerians were asked to deposit old notes before January 31, 2023.

Although the deadline has been moved to February 10, many Nigerians are still finding it hard to get new naira notes.

President Muhammadu Buhari, declaring his support for the policy, noted it would deter politicians from “mobilising resources to intimidate voters”.

Speaking on Sunrise Daily on Channels Television on Thursday, Kwankwaso alleged that politicians, particularly candidates in the next month’s elections, are unaffected by the policy.

“What the government is saying has to do with people who would want to take too much money, like leaders and politicians.

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

“And not only that, people close to them have banks everywhere. So, they will lose nothing. PDP has governors, and APC has governors. Governors by now would have collected so much money from the banks in their states,” Kwankwaso said.