BusinessNews

Kwara traders lose N10m to fire outbreak

...as market heads calls for price control

By Mike Adeyemi
Traders at the popular Ipata market in Ilorin East Local Government of Kwara State are counting their losses following an inferno which engulfed the market recently destroying goods worth millions of naira.
Speaking with our reporter at the market, the Iyaloja of Ipata market, Alhaja ’Mowumi Ahmad said the fire was caused by negligence on the part of a trader.
According to her, ‘Ipata market was engulfed with fire and it was due to negligence from a trader who didn’t quench fire from her cooking stove properly.
“We lost over N10 million worth of goods to the inferno as many shops were razed down. We appeal to the government to come to our aid on this,” she said.
Ahmad added that there has been lull in economic activities at the market as a result of inflated price of commodities, urging government to put in place price control mechanism.
“Trading activities at Ipata market has dropped and this is as a result of incessant hike in the price of commodities. The recent opening of borders hasn’t reflected on what we buy and sell.
“A bag of rice which was sold at N9,000 before now has increased to N23,000. Prior now, a Jerry can of palm oil was sold for N7,000, it is now N17,000.
“What we can say is cheap and affordable now at Ipata market are tomatoes and pepper. We are appealing to the government to help us in this area, ” Iyaloja appealed.
She added that the best way incessant hike in price of goods and commodities can be abated is through price control by the government.
“The Federal Government should come up with a price control system for all commodities. Government can fix prices and with this there would be sanity in the market. Since the government placed a fixed price on petrol, why not on other commodities too,” she queried.
In the same vein, the Public Relations Officer of Ipata market association, Lanre Balogun described the downtown in business activities at the market to the incessant kidnapping of Ipata traders in the north.
“Trading activities in our market has been badly affected as a result of kidnapping and banditry attacks on our traders when they travel to buy goods in the northern part of the country.
“About six of our traders were kidnapped and we had to contribute money for their release. We have facilitated release of four of them with a ransom sum of 8 million naira.”

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