The Chairman of Livestock Sellers in Calabar, Alhaji Isiaka Mohammed, says the extortion faced by dealers in livestock in the hands of security agents and local officials from sub-nationals is responsible for the high cost of rams.
Mohammed said he set aside at least N1 million for settlements at checkpoints to transport his livestock from the North to Cross River State in the South.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria while reacting to the bleak Eid-el-Kabir celebration amid sharp rise in prices of rams in the market, Mohammed said the recent removal of fuel subsidy and the concomitant hike in petrol prices have nothing to do with the cost of prices of rams.
He disclosed that the trucks used in conveying their animals from the North to the South ran on diesel and the price of diesel was gradually going down, so, their challenge was not actually fuel but extortion.
He said he paid as high as N30,000 at each checkpoint before he allowed to proceed with his journey southward.
He said, “Moving from the North to the South, there are so many checkpoints and for some of them, you have to pay as high as N30,000 before you are allowed to pass through.
“When you spend such amount of money on extortion alone, it will affect the price of the rams. You have all the security agencies on the roads at so many different spots, veterinary agents, and even so, many state-owned groups that you don’t understand.
“With that amount, you will settle and settle until you get to Calabar; so, for this year, the price of ram of average size that I sold for N120,000 last year is sold for N150,000; there is an addition of N20,000 to N30,000 on each of the rams,” he said.
Mohammed said that the increase in price was already affecting patronage, but they had no choice, other than to sell as they bought after adding all the expenses.
He added that the government needed to help them to curtail the extortions on the roads because he believed that the government was aware of the situation
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