Fakoyejo Olalekan
A female student allegedly suffered a panic attack at the Access Bank branch in Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, as Nigerians struggle to access their money from banks across the country.
In a video recorded on Wednesday, 8 February 2023, by Aka Ekene, a student of Rivers State University, and sent to Prime Business Africa, a lady in distress was seen struggling to walk.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe yet-to-be-identified student allegedly suffered the panic attack at the Auto Teller Machine (ATM) stand and was assisted by two people to a car, as other customers looked on in shock.
Confirming that the lady is a student, Ekene said she had her files with her, and considering it was inside their school, “I’m 90% sure she’s a student,” he stated.
He added that: “She just collapsed and everything maybe it was the long queue the stress and the withdrawal problem.”
According to Ekene, Access Bank’s security didn’t help the lady when she suffered the panic attack, hence, the unknown persons came to her rescue.
Explaining the situation to Prime Business Africa, he said, “No it was the people around that helped, the bank staff didn’t help at all.”
This is one of many negative events that ensued from the commotion caused by the commercial banks’ inability to make the new Naira available to the public.
There have been videos showing bank customers stripping naked in protest against the difficulty in accessing their money deposited in Deposit Money Banks (DMB).
Recall that there have been claims of insufficient N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) redesigned the currencies to phase out the old Naira.
The redesigned banknotes were released in December 2022, with the central bank stating that the old Naira notes will cease being legal from 31 January 2023, however, the deadline was postponed to 10 February 2023.
Within the two-month timeframe, banks have been unable to meet the demand for the new Naira notes, causing chaos among the public.
This led to attacks on bank buildings and employees of financial institutions across the country.
