Mr Ladan said persistent hippo attacks had resulted in huge losses, noting that the animals frequently destroyed crops and posed serious threats to residents.
A cross-section of buyers expressed frustration over the development.
Mr Karimi said efforts should be made to eliminate artificial contributions to food and commodity inflation in Nigeria.
Traders at the market attributed the hike in prices to increase in the demand amid low supply of the produce.
A large crowd of residents, openly swapped their old N500 and N1000 notes for items like rice, beans, tomatoes, pepper, onions among others.
The price of the essential vegetable drops after months of scarcity.
