The current high cost of food items in Nigeria has triggered another round of protests in Kogi state with residents trooping to the streets on Wednesday to protest against the palpable hardship in the land.

Some of the women who took to the streets in Lokoja expressed their dissatisfaction with the increasing prices of essential commodities, which has caused a reduction in the number of patrons, which has affected their business.

In their plight, the protesters pleaded with the government to reduce the cost of food items, adding that the rise in commodity prices has almost eroded their profit.

On Monday, residents of Niger and Kano States took a similar step, with thousands taking to the streets to protest what they described as severe hunger and rising living costs in the country.

Protesters gathered along Minna-Bida Road at the popular Kpakungu roundabout to express their dissatisfaction with the rising cost of food items when police officers arrived and fired tear gas canisters to disperse them.

Government Reacts to Douse Food crisis

On Wednesday, the minister of information and national orientation, Mohammed Idris, reacting to the ongoing situation, said the federal government is planning to unlock the national food reserves to ease the effect of food inflation on the citizenry.

Idris spoke concerning the emergency meeting set up by the federal government on Tuesday to salvage the high cost of food items in the county and ameliorate the hardship Nigerians are facing

The minister stated that the federal government has begun communicating with significant millers and commodity traders because it has observed that there is enough food in the nation, which is being hoarded due to the naira’s depreciation.

“Of course, this meeting is not by itself exhaustive. It is going to continue tomorrow and the day after,” he said.
⁣Now, some of these will involve unlocking the food that is available in most of the storage facilities around the country.

You know that the Federal Ministry of agriculture has some food reserves. That is going to be made available to Nigerians. ⁣
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“The government is also talking to major millers and major commodity traders, to also see what is available in their stores, to open it up, so that government will provide some intervention and make this food available to Nigerians.⁣”

“Government will not fold its arms and see the way Nigerians are suffering in terms of the availability of these food items,” he said.

So I want to plead with you to understand with the government. By the time these meetings are concluded, we’ll be able to issue a definite statement on what the position of government is in this regard. But all I can say is that discussions are ongoing, and very soon a solution is in sight for Nigerians.”