Governor Bello:

Residents of Lokoja have decried the steady rise in the prices of food items, and described the situation as “unbearable”.

Some of them, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday, said that the soaring prices were making life very difficult.

Mrs. Aisha Amodu, who sells food items at Lokoja old market, said that her family was looking at alternatives to rice, in view of its high cost.

“A 50 kg bag of rice is N18,000; not long ago, it was N16,000; we are finding it difficult to eat rice as was the case just last year,” she said.

Amodu said that a crate of egg was sold at N1100 from N800, while a carton of noddles is now N1970, instead of N1600.

She further said that a bag of semovita flour costs N2900, N400 above its former price of N2,500, while yam flour (elubo), had risen to N7,000, from N4,000.

“A 20-litre of groundnut oil is now NN16,000 instead of N12,000; this has forced many customers to run away,” he she said.

Amodu attributed the rise in the price of food stuff to the hike in the price of petrol as well as the increment in the exchange rate of the naira to the dollar.

Mallam Saliu Ahmed, a pepper seller in the same market, told NAN that a basket of tomatoes was currently sold for N7000, instead of N5,500, while a bag of onions goes for N18,000, far above its former price of between N14,000 to N15,000.

He said that a basket of pepper had also risen from N5000 to N7000, just like other items like potatoes.

The trader said that efforts to bring down the prices of the commodities would not be successful “once the transport cost remains very high”.

Most traders, who spoke with NAN, however expressed doubt over the possibility of the prices dropping.

“Once these prices go up, it is difficult to bring them down,” one Asabe Yau, a trader, told NAN.

(NAN)