Relief as Kano govt mulls crashing prices of flour, others

From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

There is sigh of relief for Kano residents as the state government says it is making frantic efforts to tackle the arbitrary increase in prices of flour, spaghetti and other essential commodities
This is coming as the residents of Kano groan over sudden hike on prices of essential commodities, especially flour, sugar and spaghetti, after the relaxation of the 24 hour curfew imposed by the government over the violent hardship protest .
But the government, through its Public Complaints and Anti-corruption Commission (PCAC), had summoned the leadership of Singer market to find out the root cause of the inflation.
The Chairman of the PCAC, Muhuyi Magaji Rimingado, on Friday summoned the leadership of Singer Market Development Association, SIMDA, and Master Bakers Association of Nigeria, Kano branch to his office in a bid to address the situation.
Addressing newsmen after the meeting, Rimingado said findings of the commission had revealed that the “artificial inflation” was created by retailers.
According to him, the retailers took the advantage of shortage supply due to curfew imposed by the government to hike the price.
Rimingado added that on receiving the public complaints about the high price, he intimidated the state governor, who gave him a go-ahead to address the situation.
“We have received compliants from members of the public. We see this as artificial nflation because the bag of flour bag was N65,000 before the curfew. Immediately after the relaxation of the curfew, the price jumped to N80,000.
“This is unacceptable. Even the protest was on hardship and this artificial inflation would just add salt to the injury,” he said.
Rimingado adds: “our agency has swung action. We summoned bread bakers to tell us who is responsible for the hike in the price of flour after they even attempted to stop operations due to increase in price of flour.
“So, we are now making headway. Things will be ok soon,” he assured.
According to him, the master bakers have identified the flour dealers responsible for the hike in the prices, vowing to go after them.
“We took their names and plans to sue them. But we have a rethink and invited them to meditate between the flour dealers and the bread bakers in the interest of the general public,” he added.
On his part, Chairman of SIMDA, Bar. Junaiadu Muhammad Zakari admitted that the association had received complaints of increase in prices of essential commodities following the lift of curfew.
He said on receiving the complaints, the association met with PCAC for intervention.
“We decided to act on demands. We first met the bread bakers because they are the major consumers, followed by Gurasa bakers”, he stressed.
On his part, Jibrin Abubakar Hamza, Chairman, Master Bread Bakers Association of Nigeria, Kano branch said he is the one who raised the concerns following the public outcry on hike of prices of flour.
“I raised the concerns. I rushed to Singer market leadership which also met government. They told us that it is the retail dealers that arbitrarily increased the prices .
“They now gave us 2 trucks, that is 1200 bags at 65k. I will share it into 4 zones of Kano. We haven’t even settled the money yet to the market association.
“I can confirm to you that we received first truck and waiting for the second one.
“The dealers have promised to sacrifice half of the flour supplied to bread breakers. Now bread price is about to crash soon,” he assured.