Northern Group Faults Atiku For Backing Naira Redesign, Says Move Not Favour Common People

A coalition of Katsina Groups for National Unity and Integration has faulted the stance of the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar on the redesign of the naira notes.

The Coalition claimed the move does not favour the common man. The Coordinator of the Coalition Comrade Hamza Umar Saulawa said this while addressing a press conference at the State Secretariat of the Nigerian Union of Journalists in Katsina.

“In spite of the glaring failure of CBN’s ill-timed and ill-prepared Naira redesign policy, which has plunged millions of Nigerians, mostly masses into hardship, and destroying small and medium scale businesses, thereby exacerbating the scourge of unemployment, hunger, and absolute poverty, we are dumbfounded to read the comment made by Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate in the forthcoming general elections, urging the apex bank, to extend the February 10th deadline for naira swap,” he said.

“Unless Atiku is desperate to capitalize on the suffering of innocent Nigerians to make a political gain, he knows that the haphazard policy is doing more harm than good to the socio-economic well-being of Nigerians.

“The second issue is again on the stand of Atiku Abubakar that once elected into power he would release, Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the proscribed IPOB group. This is taking political brinkmanship to the limit.

“We all know that based on the provisions of our constitution, the president has no power to order the release of a suspect who is standing a trial before a court of law.

“Several times, he had called for the disbandment of Nigeria. Again, he was once caught on jumping bail. Yet with all these allegations of atrocities, we have among the presidential aspirants, making it one of his campaign promises to facilitate his release as if our country has become a banana republic.”