By Comrade Nnadi Goodluck
On Thursday, market women were beaten up for alleged profiteering and nefarious activities.
The incident happened at Oregbeni market in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of Edo State occurred when some market women increased the price of garri to over 120%.
Nyscinfo gathered that residents were still complaining about the price of the painter of garri which rose to N1,600 from N600, without knowing that the market sellers have ulterior motives. When they got to the market yesterday, garri started selling from N2,800 to N3,000. A bag which was sold for N5,000 rose to between N12,000 to 15,000. A painter of beans rose from N500 to N800, while a plate of rice which was sold for N100, rose to N150.
This didn’t go well with the residents as they pounced on the garri sellers and beat them up.
With fear that more harm will be done to them, the market women association converged at once and reverted the prices of all the food items to the old prices that it was selling before the coronavirus stay at home order.
A resident, Mr Osaze Okunbor said that it was unfair on the part of the market women to increase the cost of food items knowing that people do not go to work again because of the coronavirus lockdown.
“It was a tug of war, we begged the market women but they claimed that they were selling what they bought. We wondered why the price of food items would suddenly go up within such a short period. It is really an act of wickedness. He said.
Okunbor further revealed that a lot of people were happy by the action of the youths which resulted in the reversal of prices of food items.
“How can we survive as a country if we continue to treat ourselves this way? Tell me, is garri an imported food item that its price suddenly jumped up? I mean this is absolute rubbish.” He said.
The state government had warned traders and sellers of food items on Tuesday against exploitative tendencies by hiking the prices of food and other essential household items.
The warning was announced by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Wealth Creation, Cooperatives and Employment, Mr Joel Edionwele. He encouraged citizens to report any person engaged in profiteering to the ministry or the police.
He said: “No citizen should cash in on this period for any reason.”