Drivers in the employment of the Lagos State-owned transportation services, including the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, have defied their governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s order by rejecting the old N1,000 and N500 notes.
This is even as Sanwo-Olu on Wednesday vowed to prosecute anyone who flouted the directive.
The rejection of the old notes by commercial banks in the state has made it difficult for the ticketing company to fully comply with the governor’s directive, Daily Trust on Sunday learnt.
BRT drivers who issued tickets at some of the terminals, including Oshodi, Obalende, Agege and Abule Egba, rejected the old notes.
A journalist who wanted to top up his cowry card at the Obalende terminal was asked to do so with new notes as the old N500 and N1,000 notes were rejected
The situation has made patrons of the bus to be lamenting due to the scarcity of the new notes.
The order by the governor and the directive by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to banks not to collect the old notes has equally put the ticketing company under the regulation of the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), in a fix as the ticketing company has collected money for tickets running into millions of naira in old N500 and N1,000 notes, which the banks have refused to accept from them as deposits.
The managing director of Primero Transport Services Ltd, operators of the BRT in Lagos, Mr Fola Tinubu, said it was understandable that old notes were rejected.
