Naira Crisis: Operators Flee as Soldiers Storm Bayelsa’s Bureau De Change Centres

There was a palpable tension among BDC operators, with many choosing to abandon their offices for fear of arrest.

Soldiers were deployed around the Bureau De Change (BDC) centers in Yenagoa, the capital city of Bayelsa State, as part of a broader initiative to tackle the ongoing depreciation of the Nigerian Naira.

The move is seen as an extension of a nationwide effort by the Nigerian government to clamp down on illegal currency trading that is contributing to the naira’s decline against the dollar.

The crackdown on BDCs is not limited to Bayelsa; similar actions have been reported in major cities including Abuja, Oyo, and Lagos.
A trader, preferring to remain anonymous, voiced concerns over the operation, indicating that the authorities might be misdirecting their efforts.

“We’re not the cause of the naira’s fall. The Central Bank of Nigeria should address the root of the issue if they’re serious about solving this problem,” the trader stated, highlighting the sense of injustice felt by many in the industry.

This operation comes in the wake of the naira reaching a record low against the dollar, with rates plummeting from N1910 to $1 on the parallel market, and N1605 on the official market. The government, under President Bola Tinubu, has launched a comprehensive campaign against currency racketeering to halt the naira’s free fall.

The crackdown has also seen action in Ibadan, where Nigerian security forces, including police and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) personnel, targeted BDC operators in the Sabo area, known as the state’s trading hub. In Abuja, over 100 BDC operators were arrested as the currency continued its downward spiral.

At the heart of these operations is a directive from the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, ordering the Nigeria Police Force, EFCC, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to pursue forex market speculators aggressively.