Insecurity: Northern Traders Threaten to Cut Off Food Supply Nationwide
- Food scarcity may be looming nationwide as northern food traders have threatened to go on strike
- According to the traders, previous agreements with the government have not been fulfilled and issues raised previously still persists
- The traders had earlier gone on strike due to attacks on some of their members in southern region of the country
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FCT, Abuja - Northern food traders under the aegis of the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuffs and Cattle Dealers in Nigeria (AUFCDN) has threatened to resume their strike and cut off food supply nationwide.
The group said it will take the decision due to the failure of the federal government to pay the N4.75 billion compensation agreed with them.
The traders, however, gave the government a three-week ultimatum to implement the signed agreement that led to the calling-off of their strike in March this year.
Source: Getty Images
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The union alleged its members were still being extorted by security agencies and harassed in the southeast.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday, June 8 AUFCDN president, Comrade Muhammad Tahir, said three months after the union suspended the strike, the government was yet to meet their demands.
He said at the expiration of the three weeks ultimatum, the traders will ensure a nationwide blockade of food supply.
The Nation quoted him as saying:
“We have agreed to resume our strike. We sent all our documents as a reminder to the leadership of the National Assembly, the IG of Police, and all security agencies. We will wait to see what the government will say. If the government calls us about the issue then we will suspend action.
“We have not called strike. We are waiting on the government for this reminder. We will wait for the government from now to two-three weeks about the agreement that made us call off our strike. Since we called it off nothing has been done.”
Meanwhile, experts have warned that unwholesome food leads to 420,000 premature deaths worldwide.
According to The Guardian newspaper, the data was provided by the Food and Agricultural Organisation, warning that food safety is everyone’s business.
Legit.ng had earlier reported that the association of Onions Producers, Processors, and Marketers of Nigeria recently threatened to stop the supplying of onion to the entire southern part of Nigeria.
According to the group, the embargo on the supply would not be lifted unless certain conditions laid down by the association are met.
The association disclosed that about N4.5 billion worth of onions and properties were destroyed by suspected hoodlums across southern states in the last few months in addition to the loss of lives of members of the association without any compensation.
In a related development, a group of women under the aegis of the Amalgamation of Northern Women Associations, staged a protest on Saturday, June 5, in Abuja, demanding a referendum to allow secession agitators to chose whether or not to remain in Nigeria.
The coordinator of the group, Hajia Hadiza Adamu, called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the National Assembly to urgently call for a referendum to allow those who want to secede to do so without any war.
Adamu lamented that the secessionist agitation has turned the southeast region into a warzone, adding that northerners no longer feel safe there.
Source: Legit.ng
