Economy looters buying up foodstuffs to cause hike, says Monarch

The continued increase in the prices of foodstuffs and other commodities in Nigerian markets has been largely attributed to the activities of corrupt individuals who have looted the treasury of the nation looking for ways to discredit President Muhammadu Buhari led government of the All Progressive Congress, APC due to its anti-corruption fight.
Emir of Borgu Kingdom, His Royal Highness, Barr. Mohammadu Sani Dantoro Kitoro IV, said this while fielding questions from journalists during the presentation of Letter of appointment of “Mabudin Borgu” to the Director General of Think Nigeria First Initiative (TNFI), Amb. Abubakar Tsanni, at the weekend in Abuja.
The monarch said that those who embezzled the common wealth of the nation have been going to markets across the country using their agents to buy up foods mostly grains, beans, rice and other items and hoard with the sole aim of causing price hike and untold hardship to the masses.
He said: “We all know what we went through in the last sixteen years that at a point some people were said to have stolen hundreds of millions in foreign currency and billions of naira from the coffers of the nation and hid in weird places.”
According to him,  the same individual who have stolen this money are the ones using the same money to cause hardship for Nigerians because the government is after them. 
“People are buying foodstuffs to create artificial scarcity using the resources they looted from the government of Nigeria. They hoard foodstuffs so that there will be scarcity in the country and make people suffer, and this is inhuman. What do you want the government to do in such scenario?”
Giving an analogy, the Emir narrated how he averted the situation in his kingdom saying “When I found out that this kind of situation was happening in my emirate, I took certain decisions irrespective of the rights any individual has to buy or sell goods and properties because part of the discharge of the responsibilities bestowed on me is to make sure that my people don’t suffer unjustly. 
“We saw people bringing millions of naira to buy foodstuffs, taking them away from our people and the prices of foodstuff became very high beyond the reach of the common man. So, I summoned a security meeting including all the District Heads and we took a decision at that meeting that nobody will be allow to move out with a large quantity of foodstuffs. At that time a Mudu of local rice was sold between N500 to N600 but today with the decision that we have taken, rice is being sold between N200 to N250 per Mudu.”
The Emir, whose late father Sen. Halliru Dantoro (Kitoro III) Maiborgu Kingdom was said be  instrumental to the merger that gave birth to the APC, said that the aim of the merger by the defunct political parties has been achieved urging Nigerians to be more patience with Mr President adding that ‘Rome was not built in a day’ as the President was working round the clock to fix the economy back on track for the betterment of all.
Speaking further on the merger, the lawyer cum monarch posited: “At the time, our late father thought there was the need to come together and have a very formidable force to salvage Nigeria. It was a very good thinking and he did that because he wanted Nigeria to remain as one and for the common man to be able to say this is my country.
“He did that with all sense of responsibility and he decided to bring all that matter together to get them convinced on the need to have a united front to be able to salvage this country, and I thank God almighty that the aim was achieved and by that merger of all those political parties that made up the present APC which is the ruling party. Nigerians at that time with the quest for change, they decided to vote in the government of the day. I think before his death, he was able to achieve his dream in this regard.”
He also recalled that when the former government was in power the price of oil at the international market was above $100 per barrel but when this government came in, oil prices have dropped at the international market saying there was no magic about. 
“But the need for change at that time was the kind of manner at which things were going wrong in the country; the level of corruption was so high and impunity was the order of the day while some people made government properties and money as their own.”
“The level of impunity became very high and the possibility of the common masses to gain justice was a near impossible. If you don’t belong to a particular camp, you won’t get justice. Even the level of insecurity was a nightmare because change is not all about economy, without security, there cannot be development. 
The level of insecurity at that time was so high that you cannot be sure of somebody going out and coming back safely, there was booming everywhere including the kidnap of the Chibok Girls, the kidnapping in the south east and all forms of restiveness all over the country as well as bombing in the federal capital territory.
” But since he assumption of this government, the level of insecurity has reduced greatly with only few incidences because the government has decided to focus on that aspect being the bedrock of development. The government has done it best in all sincerity to tackle the issue of Boko Haram,” he pointed out.