Youth group kicks against “price hike” admist coronavirus lockdown in Kwara
A Kwara-based youth group, Youth Arise To The Challenge (YATTC) has kicked against the hike in price of commodities amid the lockdown directives.
The Kwara State Government had ordered the restriction of the number of persons in any gathering to 10 and ban on congregation religious service as part of partial lockdown to curb the community transmission of the novel coronavirus.
According to statistics from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, as of Sunday, 29th March, there are 111 cases of the virus in Nigeria.
However, due to last minutes rush and high demands for food, drug and other essential items, the price tags continue to skyrocket.
In a press statement signed by the group’s president, Hussein Suleiman Abdulkadir and made available, on Monday, to newsmen in Ilorin, the Kwara state Capital, they described the act as evil and called on government to distribute relief items to affected individuals.
The statement reads in part, “the government needs to make a provision for a relief fund to cater for parts of our daily needs, and also to regulate the prices of goods and commodities in the market so that an ordinary individual will be able to afford and rise to the call of stomach infrastructure as long as he/she abides by the rules and regulations of the land during this hard time.
“The common individuals, which each and everyone of us isn’t exempted from, shouldn’t take every slightest opportunity as an advantage at the expense of hurting one another, most especially during this difficult time of pandemic virus. Instead, we should be committed to making every good and commodity available to everyone at a very affordable prices, because this is a time we all need to contribute our own quota to relieving people during this hard time by hook or by crook.”
The statement added, “Community and society at this point in time, shouldn’t leave the government, all alone, to take care of us. It’s the collective responsibility of everyone of us to render our unending assistance both in kind and cash, in order to make life more comfortable and easier for indigents to dwell in. More so, we implore us to look beyond giving out only personal protective equipments, creating awareness on the preventive measures as directed by several health organizations but also to give out food items to the less privileged amongst us.”
