Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Muiz Banire has advised Nigerians willing to sell their votes in the coming elections to only accept notes recognised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as legal tender in its recent pronouncement. 

The CBN last announced that the old versions of the N1,000 and N500 notes have ceased to be legal leaving out the old N200 note to coexist with the new notes to ease the burden of Nigerians trying to get access to the new note. 

Mr Banire, a former National Legal Adviser for the All Progressives Congress, made this statement on his Linkedin page where he explained that politicians are out to deceive potential voters into accepting old notes they have stored for vote buying.

“The secret is simply that they are out to deceive the unwary potential voters into accepting the already stocked old notes in their custody for the purpose of buying voters conscience” he said via his Linkedin page. 

Mr Banire admonished voters against financial inducements during the electoral process advising that their  “conscience is not worth buying,” but he added that those who must sell their votes should insist on legal tender as pronounced by the CBN. 

“My counsel is that potential voters who must take money should either insist on the real legal tender as pronounced by the apex bank or any other currency acceptable to them,” he added.