The federal government on Thursday, February 9, blamed the
rising prices of food items on officers and men of the Nigerian Army,
Nigeria Police and Nigeria Customs Service at road blocks in the
country, The Punch reports.
This follows allegations from farmers, who have continuously
complained about being extorted while moving farm products to various
locations, by officers who several mounts roadblocks.
Chief Audu Ogbeh, the minister of agriculture and rural development
made this disclosure while speaking before the National Assembly to
defend the 2017 budget of his ministry.
According to Ogbeh, farmers across the country had kicked against the
move by the federal government to effect reduction in the prices of
food items. This is as a result of high extortions they experience at
road blocks.
While addressing the Senate and House of Representatives Joint
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development at the National Assembly,
Ogbeh pointed out that one of the factors responsible for high cost of
food prices in the country “is the daily unbearable extortions by men of
the Nigeria Police, their counterpart in the Army and Customs Service
of truck drivers conveying farm produce from the hinterlands to urban
centres under the guise of carrying out security checks.”
He added: “These truck drivers, based on raw lamentations made to the
ministry in recent time, alleged that at every checkpoint they are
always forced to part with reasonable amount of money by any group of
the security agencies, which they said, made farmers to have no option
than to factor cost of extortion into prices of food items.”
Ogbeh further said, based on the complaints by the truck drivers, the
ministry wrote the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and
heads of the other security agencies to dissuade their operatives from
the act “but daily reports available to the ministry still show that
extortion continues unabated.”
The minister also cited high cost of Automobile General Oil, also
known as diesel, which now sells for N300 per litre, as another factor
responsible for the skyrocketing prices of food items in the country.
He stated that diesel consumption was inevitable since the trucks conveying farm produce were powered by diesel.
Meanwhile, the federal government says it has adopted some measures to reduce the price of food items.
