Top view of regular red onions
…as Union suspends supply to South East
Gbolahan Salman Sokoto
Onions worth more than two billion naira were on Tuesday destroyed by fire in Sokoto at the main storage facility in the state.
The National Onion Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Aliyu Isa Maitasamu, disclosed while speaking with newsmen in the state.
Reacting to the fire incidence which lasted for hours, the national president, said goods worth of N2.4B was destroyed in the storage facility.
He explained that not less than two hundred thousand of bags of onions stores in ten different storage facility at the current price of 12,000 naira in Sokoto.
He appealed to government and relevant stakeholders to come to the aid of the association by investing in the modern way of storage of onions in the country.
Aliyu further lamented that the incidence will in no doubt caused a major scarcity to the onion market in the coming months as well as the upcoming season.
Meanwhile, the Union has suspended sending of Onion Imo State and other South Eastern States of the country to protest against the continue attacks on it’s members and their goods.
Aliyu said the association took the decision as a form of protest to called on both federal and state government to improve on security in the state and the country entirely.
He said not less than two truckload of onions worth over thirteen million naira was hijacked by hoodlums in Imo State at the detriment of the marketers.
He called governments at all levels to come to the aid of the onion marketers affected by the recent protest so as to relieve them of pains suffered by his members.
He said the Union enjoyed doing business with the South Eastern part of the country especially the Igbos who he described as their brothers.
The National President appealed to governments to urgently dialogue with IPOB and other agitators across the country so as to bring lasting peace Nigeria.
