Mile 12 Market chairman links high cost of tomato, pepper to insecurity, others

The Chairman of Mile 12 International Market in Lagos State, Shehu Usman Jubrin, has pinned the recent high cost of tomato, pepper and other perishable items on insecurity and other factors.

A small basket of tomatoes goes for about N35,000 at the market, while the price of pepper has also jumped, raising concerns among Nigerians.

But Usman said that insecurity in the North was the major factor for the hike in the cost of the items.

“The bone of contention and the real fact is just insecurity. There’s absolutely nothing the country will do. This price hike will continue. They are still buying tomato at the rate of N1,000 for three pieces.

“Ninety-nine per cent of the people in IDP camps are farmers. They don’t know anything apart from farming – both male and female. The people who are on the farm and are farming with one eye closed are just about 1,500 out of like 5,000 farmers we have across the whole country,” he said, yesterday, during the edition of Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.

Usman said that some of the farmers negotiate and pay bandits before they could go to their farms to harvest the products.

He further said: “In those places where you are getting all these items, there are negotiations between them and the bandits who ask them ‘how much are you going to pay me to harvest and bring to the market?’

“So, for as long as those people are in IDP camps, the country will continue to be in trouble in terms of food items.”

He also linked the hike to other factors, including supply shortage from the northern part of Nigeria to the South.