Cattle and Foodstuff dealers under the aegis of Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria (AUFCDN), have vowed to continue its nationwide strike and sustain the enforcement on the blockade of foodstuff and cattle from entering the Southern part of the country.
This, according to them, would be sustained till federal government attended to their demands, which border on payment of N475 billion compensation for lives of members and property lost during the #EndSARS protest and Shasa market crisis.
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AUFCDN, an affiliate of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) had last week at a press briefing in Abuja, also demanded that government should order dismantling of all road blocks on federal highways due to problem all its members were subjected to when carrying out their businesses.
The General Secretary of the union, Ahmed Alaramma, on Sunday, said task force and members of the union are currently carrying out the enforcement on the blockade in Lokoja, Kogi State capital.
Other places he listed were: Jebba in Kwara State; Lafia, Nasarawa State capital; Makurdi and Katsina-ala in Benue State; Tahla in Taraba State and other places that lead to the South.
He said it was worrisome that federal government could keep quiet despite serial attacks on members of the union during and after both Shasa and #EndSARS crises, and illegal taxation being collected on each truck on the road by security operatives posted to the South.
When asked whether the present action would not weaken the unity in the country, Alaramma stressed that despite government’s indifference to their plights, members of the union would not retaliate neither react violently.
He said, “As you have seen, we are looking for the unity of Nigeria, we are all Nigerians, we don’t want Nigeria to break but as all these things are happening, government is supposed to intervene. We are all suffering this crisis.
“We have been explaining things to government. We explained things to the Chief Security Officer himself, President Muhammadu Buhari but nothing was done. We are tired of crying. We then said, okay, if that is the case, our goods, since government is not supporting us, should not be moved again.
“We went to Villa and explained things verbally to the President. We are looking for the unity of Nigeria that is why we didn’t react violently when our members were attacked in Shasa. If we don’t want unity, we would say let us retaliate.
“Those people from the South who are in the North will continue to live peacefully, nobody will attack them. Instead of attacking anybody, we said let us withdraw our service. We are not going to retaliate because we want the unity to continue.”
When contacted, the Grand Matron of AUFCDN, Hajia Hauwa Kabir Usman, said that she was on her way to Lokoja to supervise the enforcement of the blockade, saying they would never compromise.
