A group of women have blocked Minna-Bida Road at the popular Kpakungu roundabout in Minna, the Niger State capital to express their grievances over the rising cost of food items.
As early as 7 am on Monday, the women came out in their numbers and were later joined by men, who stopped vehicles from moving.
DSP Wasiu Abiodun, Spokesperson of the Niger State Police Command could not be reached at the time of filing this report.
The rising prices of essential commodities such as rice, flour, sugar, and cement are not peculiar to Niger state alone.
Reports from Kano, Kwara, Ebonyi, Oyo, Adamawa, and Lagos states as well as Abuja indicate that some residents have resorted to prayers while others calling on the government to take decisive control measures due to the economic meltdown.
A bag of cement, which was N5,500 at the beginning of January 2024, rose to N7,300 since Thursday last week.
One of the youths, Ibrahim Gana, said rice was sold at the cost of N2,000 per measure at Minna markets while maize was N1,000 per measure.
He said: “The Federal Government needs to take action to reduce the hardship being faced by the poor Nigerians. Things are becoming unbearable.”
Efforts by the police to control the crowd almost resulted in violence as protesters asked police to leave, forcing the police to fire several gunshots in the air.
Malam Shehu Usman, a civil servant and a father of five, said the current situation is beyond explanation describing the price hikes as something that needed divine intervention.
“We have to turn to God and seek his forgiveness because what is happening goes beyond human explanation. Imagine an increase of N10, 300 within 30 days on a 50kg bag of rice and no one is saying anything?
“To many of us, life has never been so difficult as what we are going through presently. Many households cannot afford three meals in a day,” he said.
Another resident, Isah Bello, stressed the need for the authorities to do the needful before things get out of control as the month of Ramadan approaches.
