Ahead of the deadline of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, cashless policy, suspected Islamic State of West Africa Province, ISWAP, members have reportedly distributed some huge sums of old naira notes to commuters in the Lake Chad Basin.
The incident reportedly occurred on Saturday along the Maiduguri/Monguno highway after Mairari village in Guzamala LGA of Borno State.
The ISWAP members were said to have driven two gun trucks and dressed in military camouflage.
A resident in the area, Bakura Ibrahim, said the insurgents positioned themselves under a tree and stood by the roadside with bags of old naira notes, Daily Trust reported.
“We left Monguno around 12 noon. As we approached Mairari, there were no existing checkpoints around the area, and we were apprehensive.
“They asked if we were going to Maiduguri, after which they started giving each person N100,000 old notes, but we couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Another source added that the group simply told them to go to banks and change the money to new notes, and ”they said may Allah make it beneficial to you.”