The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has described as fake a press release purported to have been issued by the apex bank to the effect that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the reissuance and release of old N500 and N1000 notes as legal tender in the country.
The fake release gained traction when the First Lady, Aisha Buhari posted it on her verified Instalgram page.
Mrs. Buhari deleted the fake post within one hour of sharing it via her verified Instagram handle, @aishambuhari, on Tuesday.
The post, which appeared on Mrs. Buhari’s Instagram timeline at about 10.39 a.m. on Tuesday, was liked by 1,971 of her Instagram followers within 42 minutes.
But it was not too long after Mrs. Buhari shared the poorly written statement that it was dubbed fake across social media.
The statement was characterised by punctuation and grammatical blunders as well as dangling phrases and incomplete sentences.
The CBN also denied issuing the statement purportedly signed by the bank’s Director of Corporate Communication, Osita Nwanisobi.
The reaction of the CBN in a statement signed by Edward Adamu, Deputy Governor, Corporate Services and Osita Nwanisobi, Director, Corporate Communications respectively, insisted that in line with the presidential directive, only N200 old notes are to be reissued and to circulate concurrently with the new notes.
It then warned the public to be wary of the fake news, saying the bank is working with the law enforcement agencies to investigate, apprehend and prosecute the purveyors of this fake news.
The statement read in full, “ The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria has been drawn to a FAKE PRESS RELEASE purported to have emanated from the Bank to the effect that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the reissuance and release of old N500 and N1000 notes as legal tender in the country.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Central Bank of Nigeria reiterates that in line with the directives of Mr. President, only N200 old notes are to be reissued and to circulate concurrently with the new notes.
“Members of the public are therefore advised to ignore this fake news. The Bank is working with the law enforcement agencies to investigate, apprehend and prosecute the purveyors of this fake news.
“Please be guided accordingly.”
