Nigerian police stated on Friday that people caught storming banks and vandalizing cash-dispensing machines will be treated as armed robbers.
The Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance, and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) announced that its members will not work in states where bank offices were attacked “until normalcy is restored.”
Frustration is growing in Africa’s most populous country ahead of next week’s election to choose new MPs and a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari over a central bank plan to exchange old naira banknotes for new ones.
Cash shortages and commercial disruptions have resulted from the shift.
On Friday angry customers in Lagos and other states in southern Nigeria attacked banks and burned tyres on the streets to protest failure to access their money, local television showed.
Nigeria Police Force national spokesperson Olumuyiwa Adejobi warned such actions would elicit a strong response from law enforcement agents and those caught should not claim that their rights were being violated.
“Let us get this straight, it’s not a peaceful protest when you are coming out and attacking ATMs (automated teller machines), attacking banks or any financial institution. It is robbery and we will treat you like an armed robber,” he said in a statement.
ASSBIFI said the union had requested the government to provide security within and around banks, “but regrettably the attacks have continued.”
Cash is the main medium of transaction in Africa’s largest economy, which is largely informal.
