Food scarcity hits Kaduna •As Igbo, Yoruba traders desert markets

Posted by admin Headlines, Kaduna, State News Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

RESIDENTS of Kaduna and environs, who rushed to the famous Kasuwan Talata (Tuesday market) at Kawo to restock, were shocked to the marrow as no single bag of garri was available in the market to buy. Similarly, there were no chicken feeds in the market for poultry farmers to buy because the suppliers could not move out of Kaduna to place orders due to the curfew.

A resident of Kawo New Extension, Sani Ikwere, who went to the Talata weekly market to buy foodstuffs, as government relaxed the curfew on Tuesday, told newsmen that the Igbo and Yoruba traders were nowhere to be found, even as the few bags of garri with some few traders were mopped up by government officials to feed the Internally Displaced Persons across the state.

Ikwere said most households resorted to garri because the curfew did not allow their women take other cassava to market for grinding. “We are adjusting our feeding pattern; it is now a meal or two meals in a day. It is no longer as usual. We pray things will normalise,” he said.

Also, bank customers were disappointed as they could not access their bank accounts. Many banks failed to open while the few that opened operated for four hours between 9.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m. due to the ongoing 4.00 p.m. to 7.00 a.m. curfew within the state capital.

Most shops along the ever busy Ahmadu Bello Way between Katsina road and Leventis roundabout were also closed.

Meanwhile, over 2,000 people have been displaced in Kaduna, the Executive Secretary of State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr Dogo Makama, has said. He said his agency is collaborating with donor agencies to provide succour to the internally displaced persons.

-Tribunewp_posts