Ekiti People Express Displeasure Over Long Queues At  ATMs

By Emmanuel Adeoye

The people of Ekiti State most especially Ado Ekiti residents have expressed their displeasure over the long queues at the Bank’s ATM Centres which continued for more than 20 days now.

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Treasure Newspaper man who went round most of the Commercial Banks in Ado Ekiti on Thursday observed that all the Bank’s ATMs at Bank Road in the State Capital of Ado Ekiti were heavily flooded with large numbers of customers who couldn’t get cash from their banks.

The situation which has been described as pathetic by many ATM visitors, particularly the inability to withdraw more than the sum of N20,000 at once at the Banks ATM they visited.

According to some of the people interrogated, they said, in some banks, the withdrawer limit is N10,000, while in some others, their withdraw limit is N1,000 depending on the banks. 

Also, Treasure Newspaper had gathered that this trend, which first began in the event leading to the initial announcement of the deadline for the changing of the old naira notes to the new ones, started with the flooding of the bank premises with individuals wanting to either deposit there old naira notes or renew their old notes.

Meanwhile, some of the Banks ATM users who spoke with Treasure Newspaper decried the level of the situation they have been facing in their quest to ensure they change their old naira notes to the new naira notes which was recently designed and approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria in the Country.

They unanimously called on the Federal and State Governments to intervene and safe the common masses the unnecessary suffering at their Banks ATM Centres.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of the Banks ATM Users added, that, “the way out of the situations and the long queues at the ATM Centres is for the Federal Government to direct the CBN to enable people, to at least be withdrawing more than the sum of N10,000 at once. Citing GT Bank as an example, she said, if you are withdrawing from a bank that is not your own like the Zenith Bank, the highest amount people have been withdrawing is the sum of N1,000 with bank charges ranging from N35 and N50”.

Similarly, “a woman with a similar story, while narrating her own experience revealed how she had to arrive the Zenith Bank on the Bank Road as early as 5:30am on Thursday morning to join the queue where over 150 ATM users had been waiting for hours to also withdraw. The woman said after she had waited for several hours, that, she was only able to withdraw a sum of N20,000 which was not enough for her to buy foodstuffs”, She lamented. 

Conversation with another ATM user, also a woman, revealed how, “she was at her bank ATM yesterday Wednesday and could not get any money. And that, getting to her Union bank ATM centre  today’s (Thursday) morning also, was only able to collect a sum of N10,000 which cannot be enough for her to meet her own needs. She also narrated how she went to other banks ATM’s and could not also get any money from there ATM’s machine because, according to her, when it was about 10 to 20 people to get to her, she was told that the monies at the ATM machine has finished”.

The woman (name withheld) queried why the Federal Government and those at the helms of affairs at the CBN are deliberately punishing Nigerians. “They are punishing us because of the bigwigs in the Country’s political sector. Most of these bigwigs will be at there homes inside their bedrooms, they will go and give them these monies there. But, we workers and masses that are working for the Country and collecting salaries, pensions are the ones suffering at the ATM Centres. Most times, we will be standing at the bank ATMs for several hours without able to collect any money”, she pointed out.

She however called on the Federal Government to do something urgently before things get out of hand in the State and the Country at large. She equally appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele to as a matter urgency come to the aid of the masses and the suffering workers by helping to reduce the current hardships in the Country.