Mile 12 crisis: Prices of perishable food items soar in Lagos

The market, prior to its closure, was the main supplier of food items such as vegetables, tomatoes, pepper, onions, etc to the other markets in Lagos as it was the main depot for these items as soon as they were brought from other parts of the country. Though, the state government had not yet announced […]

The market, prior to its closure, was the main supplier of food items such as vegetables, tomatoes, pepper, onions, etc to the other markets in Lagos as it was the main depot for these items as soon as they were brought from other parts of the country.
Though, the state government had not yet announced the re-opening of the market since the riots that claimed some lives and left many injured, with properties worth millions of naira destroyed, checks by our correspondent showed that some traders still found their way into the market for business activities, with the perishable items at the market being sold at high prices.
In the other markets visited by our correspondent at Ojota, Ketu, Ikorodu, Ajegunle and Oyingbo, prices of pepper and tomatoes had risen by 100 per cent; prices of carrots, cucumber, cabbage and fresh vegetables had also risen.  A basket of tomatoes that used to sell for N1,800 prior to the Mile 12 crisis was now sold for N3,600 while a bag of long pepper popularly called tatase had gone up from N1,500 to N3,000. A bag of round pepper popularly called rodo had also risen from N1,500 to N3,000.
Scores of traders who spoke with Eko Trust at the markets acknowledged that the increase in the prices of the perishable food stuffs was due to the closure of the Mile 12 market, which had resulted in the ‘scarcity’ of the items.
 “There is absolutely high demand for the items by housewives, against the low supply, and therefore the subsequent increase in the prices of the products,” said Mrs Angela Onyewuchi, a housewife who was accosted at the Oyingbo market where she came to purchase tomatoes and pepper.
 She appealed to the Lagos State government to speedily re-open the Mile 12 market, “so as to lessen the plights of those of us who regularly visit the market to buy food stuffs for our families.”
Mallam Yunusa Abdullahi, a tomato dealer at the Mile 12 market, told our correspondent that the prices of the product at the moment could not but be high, because “movement of tomatoes from the north has been slowed down due to the closure of the market.”
He noted that though, the situation was now calm, many of the traders were still afraid to flood the market with their products as “anything can still happen.”
Also, Mrs. Tunrayo Adebanji, a vegetable seller at Mile 12, said that unlike before the crisis when farmers usually brought vegetables directly from farms to the Mile 12 market, “the farmers, since the crisis of penultimate week, had diverted the vegetables to other markets, especially in neighbouring states.”
She added that the situation had resulted in the increase in the prices of vegetables in Lagos, as the product now attracted extra cost spent on transportation to bring it to Mile 12.
While appealing to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to re-open the market, Adebanji said that the government should put a permanent security measure in place at the market to avoid future clashes.
One of the officials of the market, who pleaded anonymity, also urged the governor to re-open the market, restructure and monitor it, rather than relocating it as advised by members of the State House of Assembly last week.
The Assembly had resolved that the governor should relocate the Mile 12 and Owode Onirin markets to Ejinrin and Odo Irangunshin in the Epe area of the state respectively, after conducting necessary feasibility studies and when accompanying infrastructures must have been provided.
 But noting that relocating the Mile 12 market was not the solution, the market leader said that if there was no proper structure in place by the government to monitor ‘who is who’ in the market, “such crises as the one that claimed lives in the market would continue to happen, no matter where the market is relocated to.”
He alleged that most of the people that were causing problems in the market were not Nigerians, but illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries such as Niger Republic and Chad.
 “The state government should work with the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS) to raid the Mile 12 market and rid it of illegal immigrants,” he added.