Wednesday saw chaos spread throughout the Warri metropolis and its surroundings as youths demonstrated against the lack of new naira notes and the difficulty in conducting transactions with the older notes.
It was discovered that a riot of violence started in Udu, close to Warri, Delta State’s commercial center, and later spread to Enerhen Junction, Uvwie Council Area, which is home to several new generation banks.
The violent youths who had besieged the banks in the early morning hours destroyed the automated teller machines of the local banks in protest of the nationwide cash shortage.
Protesters light bonfires on the road to block vehicular movement at the constantly busy Orhuwhorum junction, which has an Access Bank and Union Bank branch, resulting in high tension and chaos in the neighborhood.
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As a group of women and children carrying leaves joined the protesters in a demonstration over the lack of naira notes and an increase in fuel pump prices, the riot that started in Orhuwhorum junction quickly spread to Express junction.
Access Bank’s ATM at the Orhuwhorum junction and First Bank’s ATM on Udu Road were both vandalized, according to our correspondent who was on the scene. It was seen that an ATM fire was started at the intersection of Orhuwhorum and later put out.
Part of the building of the banks was also destroyed by mobs who hauled stones at the bank premises.
Bonfires were set at various junctions, particularly the ever-busy Orhuwhorum junction and Express Junction.
Before the riot started, it was reported that bank employees and customers who were inside for morning transactions had left the area.
Parents scrambled to pick up their children and wards from school before closing time as a result of the hasty closure of many schools in the area by school administration.
The Delta State Police Command’s Operation Delta Hulk soldiers and mobile police officers were seen driving around the hot spots to disperse the protesters as of the time of this report, though tension in the area is still rising.
Hours after the raging youths descended on the ATM machines, the security personnel also parked their cars in front of the banks.
Some of the locals who had gathered at the scene told our correspondent that the people are extremely frustrated with the banks’ lack of new notes and their refusal to process transactions using the old notes.
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We’re exhausted, so you go to the gas station to buy fuel. They told you that despite the exorbitant price they’re charging, they won’t accept the old notes. Give us new notes, banks say they don’t have any, and they are cash-strapped. What do they want us to do? We are unable to obtain new notes and cannot make purchases with expired ones. The youths made the decision to emerge because we are at a dead end.
“They were fortunate that security personnel arrived on time because they might have burned the banks if they hadn’t. People were running helter-skelter everywhere, and parents were rushing from place to place to pick up their kids from school. In Orhuwhorum and Express Junctions, all of the POS kiosks were set on fire. There was really commotion everywhere, according to a local who only gave his first name, Benjamin.
According to reports, the mobs who pelted the Orhuwhorum and Express Junctions with clubs and other dangerous objects destroyed the political billboards of both PDP and APC politicians.
