Ekiti Residents Besiege Banks, Fuel Stations

                   Barely 24 hours to Nigeria’s Presidential and National Assembly elections, residents of Ado Ekiti have besieged banks in the capital for last minutes withdrawal.
                  The Nation’s correspondent who went round the capital reports that many of the banks witnessed unusual surge of customers to beat the 12pm deadline for banks to close.
                   At Wema bank Okesa, the queue on the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) was several meters long while banks on old garage road also witnessed long queue with some customers hanging by the fence.                 
On Bank road, all the banks witnessed a large surge of people with many customers running from one bank to the other. A customer, Adewale Joju, said he has been to three banks trying to withdraw “emergency cash” without success.
At other banks, frustrated customers who could not withdraw cash due to poor network signals on the ATMs were left fuming. An official of First Bank, who declined to mention his name, said the network is congested.
” People are rushing to make withdrawals both on the ATM and in the hall, our network is congested, we are working hard to restore service because of the deadline,” he said.
Meanwhile, long queue have also surfaced at some fuel stations in Ado Ekiti. Most of the stations began selling at N100 per litre. At the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Bank road, customers waited in line for a long time to buy fuel at regulated price.
Residents are also in last minute shopping of foodstuff and other essential needs. One of the shoppers told The Nation: ” We just need to prepare, we are not praying for trouble, but we need to prepare.”