Residents of Calabar in Cross River have resorted to keeping vigil at Automated Teller Machine (ATM) centers in the State capital in search of new naira notes.

ATM points across the city have been taken over by long queues of people scrambling to get the new notes.

The long queues at the ATM points in Calabar started on Wednesday and have been like that as at the time of filing this report.

The residents, however, blamed the long queues on deliberate act by the banks not to load all their machines with the new notes.

Others, however, attributed the queues to the refusal of most businesses in Calabar to accept the old notes even when the deadline is still ahead.

A resident, Pascal Bajie, who frowned at the attitude of some business owners on their refusal to accept the old notes, called on the banks to be compassionate in their dealings with the public.

Mr Bajie said that he refused to understand why most of the banks with about four points of the ATMs would deliberately load only one or two of the four.

“This is part of what is causing the long queues that you have been seen for the past three days or thereabout. The banks should make effort to load all their machines,” he appealed.

Evelyn Odey, another resident, said she has had to move from one point of ATM to another and had yet to succeed in her quest to withdraw cash.

According to her, “I have been on this since Friday, I have moved from Marian down to MM Way and the challenge is all the same, long queues everywhere.

“The worst of it is that many people are refusing to accept the old notes. I am at Cross road on what to do because I have not succeeded to withdraw the new notes.”

Another resident, Ngaji Ndoma, said using the PoS was out of it as most he had visited complained of not having the new notes.

“That leaves you with the choice of only the ATM and using it is hellish because of the long queues at all that are dispensing.

“I can tell you that I have been on this since 6am and I even learnt that some persons were here earlier than me just to beat the queue,” he said.

(NAN)