Hundreds of traders at the popular Swali Ultra Modern Market in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State were stranded as the market was shut on Friday following Governor Douye Diri’s executive order on lockdown in the state.
Late Thursday, Diri had thrown his weight on resolutions towards containing coronavirus in Bayelsa State in a statewide broadcast, restricting movement, gatherings and commerce as measures aimed at protecting the populace.
In the broadcast, he announced that only those businesses dealing in essentials such as foods and pharmaceuticals would be allowed to operate while violators would be arrested and could face fines, imprisonment or both.
He ordered the Ministries of Health, Trade and Environment as well as the state Environmental Sanitation Authority to monitor the situation and compliance while directing security agencies to arrest those who fall afoul of the executive order.
Following the broadcast, the Swali Ultra Modern Market was shut on Friday, leaving traders stranded as they had no access to their stalls just as many of them complained they were not given prior notice which left them in a terrible situation.
When BDSUNDAY visited the market at about 9.00am on Friday morning, all three gates to the market were shut with hundreds of traders waiting outside as they were denied access to their businesses.
However, some itinerant traders and those selling under umbrellas along the roads leading to the market were transacting brisk business.
Diri had earlier shut the borders of the state resulting in a sharp increase in the price of garri and other staple foods including rice and beans.
It was gathered that the sharp increase in the prices was allegedly due to the activities of officials at the entrance to the state who demand bribes before allowing lorries carrying foodstuff into the state.
BDSUNDAY reliably gathered that a truck could be charged as much as N15,000 before allowing it entry into the state which made the price of a custard container of garri to shoot up to as high as N1,500 from N600 before coming down to N1,300.
Samuel Ese, Yenagoa
