Following the high cost of living in the country, the Federal High Court has ordered the Federal Government to fix the prices of foodstuffs and Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly petrol.
The Court sitting at Ikoyi, Lagos on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, gave the order following a motion filed and argued by the applicant and Human Rights Activist, Femi Falana, SAN.
Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa while granting the order said: “I have had the applicant Femi Falana in a suit no San, FHC/L/CS/869/2023 and I have also discovered that despite the service of the Originating motion on the respondents namely Attorney-General of the Federation and the Price Control Board, no opposition to it by way of counter affidavit, which is law that all the facts deposed in the affidavit attached to the originating motion are all deemed admitted.
“Consequently, all prayers that are sought for in the motion papers are hereby granted as prayed.”
The judge ordered the federal government to fix the price of Milk, Flour, salt, sugar, bicycles and their spare parts, matches, motorcycles and their spare parts, motor vehicles and their spare parts as well as Petroleum products, which include: diesel, petrol motor spirit (PMS) and kerosene.
Recall that scores of women and youth in the early hours of Monday, February 5, 2024, staged a peaceful protest to express their grievances over the high cost of living in Nigeria, especially, the erratic power and water supply in Minna, the Niger State Capital.
The protesters who were seen carrying placards with inscriptions like “no food” “we are dying of hunger” “save our families” blocked the Minna Bida Road for hours preventing vehicular movement.
This has attracted comments from well-meaning Nigerians and political parties like the Labour Party, calling on the Federal Government to address the high cost of living in the country.
On his part, Human Rights Activist, Senator Shehu Sani noted that the protest in Minna, Niger State against the high cost of living falls within the ambit of the right to peaceful dissent.
Senator Sani said, the protest was simply a message and a call for immediate and impactful measures to address the problems of the epidemic of poverty in the country.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party said, “as at today, essential commodities such as rice, garri, flour, garri, protein have witnessed exponential increases in prices since January.
“For instance, a carton of Indomie noodles now sells for N10,000, a 50kg bag of sugar is now selling at N73,000 as against N62,000 sold in early January.
“A bag of cement now sells upward of N7000 against N5500, a bag of rice rising above N70,000, while a kg of meat now sells for N4000, amongst others”, calling on Tinubu’s government to intervene.
