“It is suffocating us” Frozen fish and chicken sellers protest over rising cost of goods in Delta

Frozen fish and chicken traders in Warri, Delta State, staged a protest on Thursday, Oct. 26, to express their grievances about the rising cost of goods in the state. 

 The traders, mostly women, were armed with leaves and sang anti-government songs.

They stormed the location of some of the leading wholesalers of frozen foods in Warri South and Uvwie Local Government Areas.

The protesters complained that the daily rises in prices of frozen foods were becoming unbearable and it was affecting their business.

A trader identified as Mrs Onoriode Onokpite told journalists that they now record low patronage on daily basis.

She said, “Customers no longer patronise us as they used to. It is suffocating us. Most of us are bread winners of our families.

“We decided to take our protest to the wholesalers of frozen foods so that they can reduce prices of frozen foods for us. Government should wade into the matter. We are dying”.

A spokesperson of Ocean Lord Frozen Foods Company, Solomon Ogheneovo, while reacting to the protest, said the increase in exchange of the naira to dollar is to blame for the increase in the price of frozen goods.

While acknowledging the right of the retailers of frozen foods to protest, he however noted that they should direct their grievances at the government, not the wholesalers of frozen foods.

“If the exchange rate of the naira to dollar is low, the retail price of frozen foods will equally be low”, he said.