As Nigerians continue to deal with the scarcity of the naira notes, a video of a notorious bandit leader, identified as Kachalla Baleri, flaunting the redesigned naira notes has gone viral.
In the unverified video shared on Twitter by @Edrees4P on Thursday, Baleri, flanked on both sides by three of his gang members, each armed with AK 47 rifles, was seen in possession of the new naira notes.
Speaking in the Hausa language, Baleri said, “They (the government) redesigned the naira, poor innocent people don’t even know about it. Some don’t even own up to N10,000. He has to wake up early in the morning to go and hustle.
“What of those who have millions in the cities? You see, it is between them. The money they are saying people are changing, we that are in the bush are changing it.
He derided the federal government for lying that redesigning the naira notes will bar bandits from kidnapping for ransom.
“It is a barefaced lie to claim that the naira redesign will prevent terrorists, I mean those of us they designated as terrorists, from accessing money. You can see the new notes here with us,” Baleri said.
Showing off the new notes, the bandits’ leader said, “As you can see, this one is the N200 new note, this other one is the N500 and this one is the N1,000 new note. We are in the jungle but we have them.
“We are just showing them a little out of what we have. We have plenty sacks of new money and only God knows the amount of the new notes that we have.”
Baleri also boasted that he had up to N10 million of the new naira notes to purchase more weapons.
Short video clip of a terrorist leader Baleri displaying new naira note claiming that he has more than enough to buy more weapons. @ankaboy @Enugu62 @DejiAdesogan @jh_barnett @Abdulfagge pic.twitter.com/2AcswR9QOK
— Idris4Peace (@Edrees4P) February 2, 2023
The PUNCH reports that Baleri, who has been terrorising Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara States, was one of the 19 bandits/terrorists kingpins that were declared wanted by the Defence Headquarters in November 2022.
The military high command also placed a N5m bounty on each of the wanted terrorists to encourage Nigerians to volunteer information that could lead to their arrest.
Though unverified, the viral video raises questions on how bandits who have made the forest their abode have access to redesigned naira notes amid its scarcity as the 10 February extension by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to phase out the old notes draws close.
