Controversial Islamic Scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, says terrorists will demand ransom in Dollars should the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Insists on its plan to redesign N200, N500 and N1,000 bank notes.
“For those talking about starving kidnappers of Naira, they will start using dollars (and other hard currencies) if the naira is changed (by the CBN),” Gumi said Saturday morning on his Facebook page.
The prominent Nigerian cleric said if kidnappers start demanding dollars for ransom payment, it will worsen the economic woes of the country.
He suggested that the only way kidnapping can be stopped is if there are “robust policing, social justice for all, and equitable wealth distribution.”
Gumi said the plan to redesign higher naira notes was good but ” it is coming at the wrong time.
“Many good ideas are marred by wrong timing and the issue of changing the naira is likely to be another one.
“This kind of programme is not for a government that is in the throes of its demise.”
He cited as an example the time motorcycles were banned in some banditry-infested states, saying “we all saw that banning motorcycles or cutting off telephone communication did not help to curb the menace in those states but rather made the populace suffer the more.”
