Naira: A LASU employee trying to withdraw money from a bank passes away in line

Mr. Johnson Ademola, a Lagos State University employee who worked in Ojo, passed away on Monday afternoon while waiting in line for a cash withdrawal.

Online reports of Ademola’s passing had surfaced, with some news sources claiming the deceased was one of the institution’s deputy bursars.

The deceased went to a Wema Bank branch in the university to withdraw some cash when the incident occurred, according to information obtained.

The bank supposedly only allowed customers to withdraw a maximum of N5,000, which fueled online rumors that Ademola had passed away while waiting in line to withdraw N5,000.

It was said that Ademola, who before his death served as the institution’s Chief Executive Officer for Accounts and the Faculty of Law’s Finance Officer, fell while he waited in line to withdraw money. Reportedly, attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

The victim was reportedly taken to the University Health Centre and declared dead there after being rushed there.

The incident was confirmed to our correspondent on Tuesday afternoon by a university employee who did not want his identity published since he was not authorized to comment on the subject.

“That is true,” he remarked. When we first learned about it yesterday, we were all stunned. According to the tale, he was waiting in line at the bank to withdraw some money when he slumped and passed away instantly.

Ademola’s death was attributed by a member of the LASU community to the problem brought on by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s currency redesign program.

The event was reported by Mr. Olaniyi Jeariogbe, acting coordinator for the Centre for Information and Public Relations at LASU, when he was reached on Tuesday afternoon. He did, however, make it clear that, contrary to what several media sites had claimed, the deceased was not one of the institution’s deputy bursars.

“LASU does not have just one deputy bursar,” he remarked. All of our deputy bursars and the bursar are still healthy and living as I speak. I have to make that clear.

“The man who died was the CEO Accounting and was the Financial Officer of the Faculty of Law until his death,” he continued.

When questioned about the circumstances surrounding Ademola’s passing, Jeariogbe said that at some point around 11 a.m., Ademola left the office to go to the bank to do “some personal transactions.”

He added that “he (Ademola) left the office to go for some personal transactions at the bank between 11am and 12pm, and he had not even been away for up to 30 minutes when we learned that he had passed away,” saying “anything can happen to anybody.”

Ademola was born on November 13, 1959, and joined the organization as a Typist in January 1986, according to a LASU spokeswoman.

The CBN’s governor, Godwin Emefiele, revealed the proposal to redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes of the naira on October 26, 2022.

The CBN chairman added that new notes would be published on December 15, 2022, and that the older notes of the revised denominations would cease to be legal tender as of January 31, 2023.

Thus, before the deadline of January 31, he recommended Nigerians to begin depositing their old notes into their accounts through commercial banks.

Emefiele claimed that 85% of the money in circulation was held by Nigerians outside of the banking system, which was used to support the need for the naira redesign strategy.

The redesign of naira notes, he continued, will prevent ransom payments to terrorists and kidnappers as well as counterfeit notes.

Following a meeting between the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and President Major General Muhammadu Buhari, the deadline of January 31 was eventually extended to February 10. (retd.).

This has caused naira shortages throughout the nation and the associated hardships for Nigerians.

Nigerian citizens are in misery due to the dearth of the naira, which has caused violent protests that have resulted in the burning of banks and other assets and the loss of some lives.

While lines at banks and ATM locations around the nation have continued to grow, point-of-sale vendors have started charging Nigerians exorbitant fees for naira notes.

Nasir el-Rufai, Yahaya Bello, and Bello Matawalle, the governors of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara states, respectively, had taken the Federal Government to the Supreme Court over the naira redesign strategy. Until the case is being heard and decided, the apex court has given an interim injunction preventing the apex bank and the FG from executing the February 10 deadline for the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes to cease being legal money.

The hearing has been postponed until Wednesday, February 22, 2023 by the supreme court.

The CBN and the FG have insisted that the deadline of February 10 still stands. The CBN governor claimed that because the central bank was not a party to the lawsuit, the Supreme Court’s decision would not apply to it.

In addition, the President announced that the old N500 and N1,000 notes had ceased to be legal tender in a nationwide broadcast on Thursday, February 16, just 24 hours after the apex court had postponed the hearing of the ongoing suit until February 22. This is in defiance of the apex court’s ruling and extends the validity of the old N200 note by 60 days from February 10 to April 10 before it too loses its legal tender status.

With only four days till the eagerly anticipated presidential and parliamentary elections, Nigerians have continued to writhe in misery due to the naira redesign policy.