Stakeholders Decry High Cost Of Food Items In N’Delta

Some stakeholders in the Niger Delta region have urged the governors of the region to fashion out ways of reducing the high cost of food items in the region.
This was contained in a communiqué jointly issued by the Patriotic Forum of Niger Delta (PAFOND) and Niger Delta Indigenous People Network (NDIPN) at the end of their leadership conference in Port Harcourt, recently.
According to a communiqué, jointly signed by the National Chairman of PAFOND, Comrade Owo Udo and National coordinator of NDIPN, Daniel Wilson, time has come for governors of the six Niger Delta states to invest heavily in agriculture with a view to checking the high cost of food items in the region.
The two bodies also lamented the high rate of extortion of drivers by police and illegal task force, noting that this has added to the cost of transporting food from one place to another in the region.
They stressed the need for a committee to check the incessant increase of price of farm produce in the region.
While calling for more attention to be paid to the distribution of fertilizers to farmers in the region, the groups also urged the governors in the region to start building storage facilities in markets and commercial areas to avoid wastage of agricultural produce.
The groups further advised the various state governments in the region to partner with international oil companies to build state refineries in their various states.