PDP wants suspension of ATM, electricity charges amid lockdown

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called for the suspension of charges for use of ATM cards and low amount mobile fund transfers during the COVID-19 lockdown.

According to a statement by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, on Sunday in Abuja, the suspension of such charges should be part of the panacea to ease the burden on poor Nigerians during the lockdown.

The party called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to immediately open an arrangement with commercial banks to suspend the charges.

Ologbondiyan said the lockdown had subjected the majority of Nigerians to extensive use of ATM and mobile transfers for survival, making the suspension of charges on minimal transactions within this period of restriction highly imperative.

He said that the lifting of the charges within the period of COVID-19 pandemic would ease the burden on cash withdrawals by vulnerable citizens and encourage more Nigerians to support one another at this critical time.

“The PDP demands the CBN to immediately liaise with commercial banks and stimulate a special social sustenance modality to defray the cost of such charges, particularly to cover minimal transactions in favour of vulnerable Nigerians.

The party urges the federal government to activate similar social sustenance scheme to immediately defray electricity tariff, particularly in areas populated by low income and vulnerable Nigerians across the country within the period of the lockdown.

“The PDP calls on the federal government to show compassion on suffering Nigerians whose means of subsistence has been crippled by the lockdown, and immediately provide funds to electricity distribution companies to actuate the tariff suspension within this period.