Niger State has cautioned traders, particularly “middlemen’’ dealing in basic food items to resist the temptations of increasing the prizes of food stuff which will invariably cause artificial scarcity of food all in the name of trying to maximize profits in the state.
The state Commissioner of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Jonathan Vatsa, stated in Minna that the Governor Sani Bello-led government was worried that such acts if unchecked could compound the pains citizens were going through.
“We want to sound note of warning to shylock traders who may want to deny Nigerlites the benefits of enjoying the goodies from the bumper harvest recorded during last cropping season by unwarranted increase in cost of basic food items,” he said.
Vatsa advised stakeholders from the point of harvest, transport, preserving and finally displaying of food items in the markets to be moderate in fixing cost for basic food stuff in the interest of all because the bumper harvest recorded in the last cropping season was made possible by God.
His words: “We planted but God gave the yield.” The commissioner therefore appealed to farmers and others to be wary of the antics of such people as middlemen who would want to cash in on Nigeria’s economic situation to demonstrate their greed.
Vatsa said that the call for moderation by farmers and traders became imperative because it was not humanly right that “we allow yields made possible only by God to be hijacked by the so called middlemen, who rip the farmers of their sweat only to hoard same foodstuff from the public.
“All we are asking is that everyone on the line of getting the agricultural produce from the farm to the markets to put the interest of Nigerlites first in their profiteering ventures. No need for unnecessary hike in cost of these food items”.