August 13, 2024.
By Samuel Ogunsona
Oba Rufus Adeyemo Adejugbe, the Ewi of Ado Ekiti, has ordered the crackdown of any traders association in market places and directed the reduction of prices of foodstuffs across markets in Ado Ekiti.
Oba Adeyemo in collaboration with his council Chiefs took the decisions during a meeting with the leadership and some members of the market women association drawn from the various markets in the state capital.
The King expressed his displeasure with reports that some members in the hide under the traders association as middlemen to inflate foodstuff prices for their personal gain.
The items that the Ewi-in-Council directed immediate slashing of their prices included tomatoes, pepper, vegetable, palm oil, locust beans, meat, garri, and beans, among others.
“All along, we have market women association leaders in all sectors. People selling clothes have associations. We never knew that in addition to the leaders we have there, there are still some people called middlemen. That is why the farmers will bring foodstuff from the farm, the middlemen will hijack the goods and increase the price.
“Sometimes, they don’t pay the farmers until they have sold them. We realised that is one of the reasons why there are high prices of goods in the markets. We decided to ban all associations in the markets and there is no middleman again. Bring your goods to the markets and nobody can stop you again.
“We will sanction whoever goes against the directive. The chiefs have been directed to be monitoring the markets. We have minimum prices for the foods that we eat and nobody should inflate them,” he said.
He warned that any attempt to inflate the foodstuff prices again would result to serious sanction.
