It was a relief to many residents of Lagos State as northern traders, on Wednesday, resumed supplies of food items to southern states and end the strike that began on February 25.
The Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria (AUFCDN) had embarked on the strike in protest against alleged killing of its members, and hence placing a demand of N475 billion compensation for the lives and properties allegedly lost during the #EndSARS protest and the recent Shasha market crisis.
Expectedly, prices of foodstuff, vegetables and beef rose in Lagos and other parts of southern Nigeria. At the popular Mile 12 market, headquarters of perishable food items in Lagos, meat sellers who were largely absent since last weekend, returned sparsely to the market. Beef vendors at the market attributed their absence to unavailability of cattle at abattoirs due to high prices.
Also, there was still scarcity of tomatoes, pepper and some other food items brought from the northern part of the country. A big basket of tomatoes, which sold between N5,000 to N6,000 before the food blockade, sold for as high as N35,000 on Wednesday. Also, a bag of pepper was sold at an average price of N17,000, from a relatively lower price of between N8,000 and N10,000 last week.
It was also observed that onions, which usually sells for between N11,000 and N12,000 per bag, now goes for between N20,000 and N25,000 per bag.
However, the price of beans remained relatively the same at N23,000 for small bag and N46,000 for the big bag, though in some markets, the big bag is N55,000.
The story is the same in other markets across the state. At Oshodi, a meat seller, simply identified as Tunde, who trades in beef, told The Guardian that meat had become a scarce commodity. Beef leg, which was formerly sold for N7,000, now goes for N20,000.“It’s a problem selling beef because people are not buying meat at our set price, which shot up since the Hausas that supply us stopped selling to us. We heard that the Ibadan crisis was what led to the hike and scarcity.” (Guardian)