“We pay N1,000 per 100kg bag of grains loaded in trucks and N500 for a bag on a motorcycle.” Tukur Muhammad, Secretary of Amana Farmers and Grains Suppliers Association of Nigeria in the area, said.
He attributed the hike in the prices of farm produce, goods and other essential items to extortion by security operatives in the area.
“Even if you are not carrying anything on your motorcycle, but you going to the market, you have to pay an extortion of N300.
“We are citizens of this country; as farmers and marketers, we are always taking the blame of not doing enough to reduce prices of the essential commodities.
“Unknown to many people, it is not our making. It is this extortion that has been contributing a lot to the hike in prices of commodities,’’ Muhammad stressed.
He urged the state government to enforce its collection of Internally Generated Revenue and prevent all illegal revenue collections and extortions.
“This will serve as a safeguard to all people against illegal collection of revenue and enable the state government to generate what ought to go its coffers,’’ the association’s scribe said.