Few hours after workers and residents were asked to stay home in most states of Nigeria in a bid to contain the spread of Coronavirus prices of food items and other essential commodities have continued to rise in Adamawa and Taraba states.
Some residents and traders who spoke to The Interview have appealed to the federal government to regulate the prices of food items in these trying times.
The residents and traders at various markets in Yola and Jalingo said the prices of food items should be regulated to cushion the effects of the lockdown.
The Interview observed that there was panic and rush hour buying by residents while many traders had increased the prices of their products taking advantage of the current situation to exploit consumers.
Mr. Yohanna David, a public servant in Yola said he came to the Jimeta market to buy some food items for his family and noticed that the money he brought could not buy him enough food and essential items.
David decried that the prices of food items had been increased compared to what they used to be a week ago.
“I came to this market with N10, 000 to buy some food items for my family but now I cannot buy what I came here to buy because of the increase in the prices.
“I could only buy the most important items for my children to manage since our salaries in local government have not been paid.’’
Also corroborating the situation, Fatima Bello, a mother of two said she was appealing to the federal government to help address the issue of hike in the prices of food items.
“I think the government should regulate the prices of all food items because a lot of people are using the opportunity to enrich themselves.
“Why should people just increase prices of raw food that they have in their shops before, not that they bought new ones,” she said.
Bello also appealed to the traders to be considerate and not over increase the prices of their goods, especially food items.
“It is not easy for the masses to afford some of the foods because of the sudden increase; the government should somehow come to the aid of the masses.’’
Mallam Adamu Wanzam, a tomatoes seller said that the increase in the price of tomatoes and other ingredients was because the commodity was increased by the middlemen, which was worsened by the high cost of transportation.
“Yes, people are now trooping to buy food items and it’s not our intention to hike the prices. Before now, a basket of tomatoes cost about N2,000 or N2,500, but today is sold at the cost of N4,000, while the bag of pepper that used to be N3500 is now N5,000, here in Yola,’’ he said.
Baba Adamu, a rice dealer at the Jalingo market said the price had to be increased because rice was becoming unavailable even from the warehouse.
“The rice I am selling now is a new one and I bought it from someone to resell because I could not get from the company again.
“The truth is that if not for the panic buying, there will be food for everyone but some people just came to buy up what they do not even need just to store,” he said.
Investigations showed that in some markets and shopping malls a bag of parboil rice is now sold at N24,000.
