Amid the current economic hardship and rising inflation, Governor Mohammed Bago of Niger State has banned the mass purchase of food items at local markets by traders from other states. 

The ban came after residents flooded the streets of the state capital, Minna, to protest over the biting hardships and rising cost of living in the country.

Mr Bago blamed the hike in the prices of commodities, particularly food items, on traders who stormed local markets to mop up grains and convey them to neighbouring states. 

He said the traders who usually come with heavy trucks to the local markets have made the food items scarce, thereby making life more difficult for the state’s residents. 

“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. 

The governor, however, attributed the protest by the residents to the wrong information that the government planned to hoard the food items meant for palliatives.

On Monday, 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.