Governor Bago bans mass purchase of food items in local markets
Governor Mohammed Bago of Niger State has issued a ban on the mass purchase of food items by traders from other states in local markets amidst economic challenges and rising inflation.
The ban, prompted by protests over the high cost of living, aims to curb the activities of traders who gather grains and transport them to neighboring states.
In his statement, Governor Bago attributed the surge in commodity prices, particularly food items, to traders utilising heavy trucks to deplete local markets, leading to scarcity and increased hardship for residents.
He announced an executive order to prevent food speculators from disrupting local markets and announced that any trucks found purchasing food supplies in bulk would be confiscated and auctioned immediately.
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“I have decided to issue an executive order effective today to stop food speculators from invading our local markets to mop up our farm produce to other states and neighbouring countries, thereby making things difficult for people of the state and Nigeria as a whole.
“By this order, any truck found in any rural market coming to load food supplies in bulk will be confiscated, and the produce will be auctioned out immediately,” Mr Bago said.
Neptune Prime earlier reports that, the state’s residents had trooped out to protest the rising cost of food items by blocking some trucks on transits through the state capital, Minna.
Lamenting how difficult it had been to survive with the high cost of goods, the protestors, mostly youths and women, said the economy was getting worse under the watch of President Bola Tinubu.
