Northern traders resume movement of food items to South

Dealers in food items in Kwara and neighbouring states have heaved a sigh of relief as free movement of goods and food products Monday resumed from North to South West states.

It was also gathered that some Hausa youths in Kara-Jebba, outskirts of Niger state in Kwara state boundary had, between last Thursday and Friday, blocked truck drivers carrying food items from entering South Western states. Following the blockade, truckloads of food items from the northern parts of the country were denied entry into states of the South West. The items are tomatoes, beans, yams, cattle, pepper and others.

The situation, it was gathered resulted in indiscriminate parking of rucks along the road obstructing vehicular movement and causing the destruction of the perishable food items.

Investigation revealed that free movement of goods laden trucks resumed early Monday morning on the Jebba-Ilorin expressway.

Resident of Jebba, Prince Ibrahim Adebara, said that a troop of military operatives drafted by the federal government effected the free movement.

Adebara said that the military personnel had stationed along the road to maintain law and order, adding that the military personnel threatened to treat anyone that blocked the road as terrorist.

Also speaking, a trader called Madam Asiawu Balogun said she was happy with the return of normalcy, however, lamenting losses caused by some perishable items that got bad while the situation lasted.

The defence headquarters, in a statement at the weekend by its acting director defence information, Brigadier-General Onyema Ugochukwu, said it had cleared the Jebba-Kaduna road of those preventing trucks from going to the South and restored normalcy there.

“This is also to give a stern warning to any unscrupulous group or persons who are aiming at disrupting legitimate economic and commercial activities by preventing free flow of traffic and movement of goods in a bid to generate clashes along ethnic divides to desist from such unpatriotic acts or face the wrath of the law.

“Members of the public are also urged to promptly report anyone found engaged in such atrocious activities to security operatives,” the statement had said.