Governors Planning to Buy Votes With Old Naira Notes

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Muiz Banire, has alleged that the governors insisting on the continued circulation of all the old naira notes as legal tender are doing so for the purpose of vote-buying.

Banire alleged that the governors were planning to deceive voters to accept the “already stocked old notes in their custody for the purpose of buying voters’ conscience.”

He made the allegations in a statement posted to his LinkedIn page on Friday.

“A lot of us might not understand why the Governors are insisting on the old notes being legal tender,” the SAN wrote. “Certainly, it is not that they don’t know that they do not have the power to declare what is legal tender, neither did they not know that [they] … lack the capacity to enforce any Supreme Court judgment.

The secret is simply that they are out to deceive the unwary potential voters into accepting the already stocked old notes in their custody for the purpose of buying voters’ conscience,” he alleged.

Banire advised voters who wished to collect money from politicians to insist on “the real legal tender as pronounced by the apex bank.”

He wrote, “My counsel is that potential voters who must take money should either insist on the real legal tender as pronounced by the apex bank or any other currency acceptable to them.”

He, however, admonished that” your conscience is not worth buying, but if you must collect the money which mostly is stolen from the treasury, insist on legal tender and still vote your conscience. This is part of our leadership campaign leadership series.”