Residents of Surulere and its environs have trooped to Surulere Local Government, in Lagos, to buy foodstuff at reduced price.
Chairman of the Local Government, Sulaiman Yusuf, had earlier announced the reduction in the prices of food items’ by 50 per cent for the residents.
He explained that the gesture was to mitigate the effect of inflation on the people.
Tagged Surulere Market Fair, some of the food items sold include garri, foreign and local rice, beans, grandnut oil, palm oil, eggs, noodles, pepper of all kinds, and yam.
Yusuf pointed out that many people at the grassroots were affected after the removal of fuel subsidy and slashing food prices is a way of supporting the people.
He equally stated that the other half of the cost of the commodities will be paid by the local government.
“We’re giving out 50 per cent reduction. Whatever cost of the commodity, 50 per cent of it will be paid by the local government. When we look at it, foreign rice is sold for N18,000 for 10kg, we’re selling it for N9,000, local government will pay the rest. The same goes for other commodities,” he said.
The LG boss stressed that being the first edition of this programme, the turnout was massive and that he didn’t expect he would see such amount of people.
“This is the first edition of the programme. We’ve learnt a lot from this, by the next edition, we would plan better. We would’ve arranged everything at night so when people start coming in, they would buy and leave.
He said, “I did not even expect this turn out, it is massive; we can all see that truly there is hunger in the land, but we believe that we will do our best to ameliorate it.”
Yusuf enjoined Nigerians to remain calm; assuring that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would right the wrong of the past.
Some of the beneficiaries lauded the council boss for the kind gesture.
One of the beneficiaries, Ade Kunle, said the programme was well organised.
“The products were splashed by 50 per cent and it was very affordable. It was well coordinated. Individuals were allowed to initially buy more than two items, but when the crowd expanded in number, they were allowed to buy just two items so as to ensure that items be enough for everyone to purchase,” he said.
Aldo, Alhaja Modupe Ola, stated hat it was a well thought out initiative. She urged the council boss to make such gesture a weekly activity.
She noted that a lot of people are feeling the impact of subsidy removal, hence, the need for local governments across the federation to regularly come up with intervention programs such as this.
She said the council should also increase the number of food items.
