BY: News Peddlers
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| LASU gate |
Mr. Johnson Ademola, a Lagos State University, Ojo employee, died Monday afternoon in a bank queue while attempting to withdraw cash. His colleagues has blamed his death on the Policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Some news outlets (not News Peddlers) reported Ademola's death, claiming the deceased was one of the institution's deputy bursars.
According to reports, the incident occurred at a Wema Bank branch in the university where the deceased went to withdraw money.
A member of the LASU community blamed Ademola's death on the crisis caused by the Central Bank of Nigeria's naira redesign policy.
It was gathered, that the bank allegedly permitted customers to withdraw a maximum of N5,000, fueling online speculation that Ademola died while waiting in line to withdraw N5,000.
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Ademola, who was the Financial Officer of the Faculty of Law and an Executive Officer in the institution's Accounts Department until his death, was said to have slumped while waiting in line for his turn to withdraw cash. Attempts to resuscitate him were reportedly futile.
According to reports, the deceased was rushed to the University Health Centre and pronounced dead.
A university employee, who did not want his name published because he was not authorized to speak on the subject, confirmed the incident to PUNCH correspondent on Tuesday afternoon.
"It is true," he said. "We were all taken aback when we learned about it yesterday. According to the story, he went to the bank to withdraw some money."
"It is true," he said. We were all taken aback when we learned about it yesterday. According to the story, he was at the bank to withdraw some cash when he slumped and died immediately."
Mr. Olaniyi Jeariogbe, the acting Coordinator for the Centre for Information and Public Relations at LASU, confirmed the incident to The PUNCH on Tuesday afternoon. He did, however, clarify that the deceased was not one of the institution's deputy bursars, as some media outlets had reported.
"LASU does not have a single deputy bursar," he explained. And, as I speak, all of our deputy bursars and the bursar are still alive and well. That was something I needed to clarify."
"The man who died was the CEO Accounts and was the Financial Officer of the Faculty of Law until his death," he continued.
When asked about Ademola's death, Jeariogbe stated that he (Ademola) left the office for the bank to conduct "some personal transactions" at around 11 a.m.
"Anything can happen to anyone," he said, adding that "he (Ademola) left the office between 11am and 12pm to go to the bank for some personal transactions, and he had not even been away for up to 30 minutes when we heard that he had died."
Speaking to PUNCH, the Registrar of LASU, Mr Emmanuel Fanu, confirmed Ademola's death, clarified that the deceased was not the institution's deputy bursar as some media outlets reported, and revealed that the deceased died of "cardiac arrest."
"The medical director at the University Health Centre said he was brought in dead to the health centre and that he died of cardiac arrest," Fanu said, adding that "he was not the bursar or deputy bursar as we have been reading in some reports."
Ademola was born on November 13, 1959, and began working at LASU as a Typist in January 1986.
CBN Naira Redesign Policy
On October 26, 2022, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, announced the apex bank's plan to redesign the N200, N500, and N1,000 naira notes.
The CBN chairman also stated that the old notes of the redesigned denominations would lose legal tender status on January 31, 2023, and that new notes would be released on December 15, 2022.
As a result, he advised Nigerians to begin depositing their old notes into commercial banks' accounts before the January 31 deadline.
To justify the need for a redesigned naira policy, Emefiele stated that 85% of the currency in circulation was held outside of the banking sector and was being hoarded by Nigerians.
He went on to say that redesigning naira notes would help to reduce counterfeit notes while also impeding ransom payments to terrorists and kidnappers.
The January 31 deadline was later extended to February 10 following a meeting between the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
As a result, the naira has become scarce throughout the country, causing hardship for Nigerians.
Violent protests that resulted in the burning of banks and other properties, as well as the loss of some lives, have erupted across Nigeria as citizens groan under the pain brought on by the naira's scarcity.
Queues at banks and Automated Teller Machine locations across the country have continued to grow, and POS merchants have resorted to selling naira notes at exorbitant prices to Nigerians.