Drama in Edo as residents beat up market women for increasing price of garri

There was drama on Thursday at the Oregbeni market in the Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of Edo State as angry buyers beat up garri sellers for jerking up the price of the staple food item.

The sellers were eventually forced to reduce the price to the old one from the over 100 percent increase.

Taking advantage of the partial lockdown imposed by the state government in an effort to control the spread of COVID-19 disease in the state, the price of garri rose from N1, 600 to N2,800 per plastic while a bag which was N8,000 before now rose to between N12,000 and N15,000.

The residents, who had remained indoors, were shocked when they got to the market only to discover that the prices of food items have gone beyond their reach.

The situation later got to a head as more customers in the market gathered to protest the price hike and later beat up the market women.

Read also: COVID-19: Lagos govt shuts Agege Central Mosque over attack on Taskforce officials

The market women association however saved the day as they immediately held a meeting and reversed the prices of all the food items to the old prices.

Speaking on the crash, a resident, who witnessed the incident, lamented the increase in the prices of food items by the market women even when they know that people could not go to work again because of coronavirus.

“It was a tug of war, we begged the market women but they claimed that they were selling what they bought. We wondered why the price of food items would suddenly go up within such a short period.

“How can we survive as a country if we continue to treat ourselves this way? Tell me, is garri an imported food item that its price suddenly jumped up? I mean this is absolute rubbish,” the resident said.

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