By Mark Lenu
Some traders in Rivers State have kicked against the order given to them by the Federal Government to crash the price of the goods they sell to the public.
Price inflation on consumer goods and services has been very alarming since the inception of the Bola Tinubu-led federal government which is largely attributed to the removal of fuel subsidy.
The growing inflation in the prices of goods in the country led to the upward review of the national minimum wage as well as the recent protest tagged #EndBadGovernance which later turned bloody in some states of the country.
The federal government had through the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission given a one-month moratorium to traders and other market stakeholders involved in pricing to crash the prices of goods.
The newly appointed Executive Vice Chairman of the commission, Tunji Bello, said this at a one-day stakeholders engagement on exploitative pricing on Thursday.
According to Bello, the meeting was to address the growing trend of unreasonable pricing of consumer goods and services and the unwholesome practice of market associations.
The traders who mainly deal in daily consumable goods within the Kalabari axis of the state told our correspondent that the order given by the federal government is baseless, adding that the policies of the FG are responsible for the price hike, not the traders.
In their separate views, they said: “We are not the cause of the hike in the price of goods, the policies of the government forced the price of goods to increase.
“The solution is not to force traders to crash the price of the goods they sell as we sell according to how we buy from other traders and we can not sell less, else we will be out of business.
“When transport fare is high as occasioned by the high cost of petroleum products, high taxes and tariffs with insecurity in most farming communities in the country, the price of goods will go up.
“Government should look into its failing policies and address the inflation crisis with policies and programs that will be friendly with our economy and jettison the idea of forcing traders to crash the price of goods.”.
