Prices of food items in Owerri have continued to move up
following the demolition of Eke Ukwu market. Vanguard survey, yesterday, at
Relief market in Owerri, revealed that prices of some major commodities have
skyrocketed...
Some of the traders at Relief Market said they usually go to
Eke Ukwu market to buy their wares at cheap rate. Some traders said the
population of traders in the Relief market has increased as well as patronage.
A bottle of palm oil, which was sold between N950 and N1000, moved up to
between N1,100 and N1,150, while a paint measure of garri previously sold between
N500 and N550, skyrocketed to N650 and N700, just as a half paint now costs
between N350 and N370 as against N250. A paint measure of beans went up from
between N1,500 and N1,550 to N1, 650 and N1,700. Equally, a half paint now
sells between N800 and N900. Whereas a paint of rice earlier sold between
N1,700 and N1,800 is now selling for N1,850 and N1,900, a half paint measure
jumping from N850 to N900. A trader who sells vegetable simply identified as
Madam Ebere said: “You know that some of us go to EkeUkwu market to buy many of
what we sell in the Relief Market. “When we go to Eke Ukwu in the morning, we
buy things very cheap and we come to sell them in Relief Market. We are no
longer buying those things and we have to travel very far to get those things.”
A man who sells palm oil, Mr. Ikechukwu, told Vanguard that “Eke Ukwu market is
too big that people know they can get whatever they want but we cannot get
those things cheap as usual and it has affected the price of what we sell.”
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