No fewer than 200,000 bags of onions worth N2.5 billion have been destroyed by fire at the Ramin Kura local onion storage facility in Sokoto State.
According to the National President Onion Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria (OPMAN), Aliyu Isah, the facility has about 20 local storage facilities with the capacity for 200,000 bags.
He said going by the current market price of N12,000 per bag, the value of the Onions destroyed cannot be less than N2.5 billion.
Isah expressed fear that this may lead to an onion crisis in the country as experienced in 2020 during the Coronavirus outbreak and the ENDSARS protests.
He appealed to the Federal and State governments to assist farmers and traders to cushion the effect of the great loss.
In a related development, OPMAN disclosed that it will henceforth seize to supply onion to the South-East following the heightened level of insecurity in the region.
Making this known to newsmen, the National President of OPMAN said the association’s decision was based on the recent hijack of two of their members’ trucks by some gunmen in the zone.
According to Isah, the two truckloads of onions from the North were intercepted and raided by the gunmen.
Persecondnews reports that some hoodlums allegedly hijacked two truck-full of onions from the North in Imo State and distributed them free to the public.
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