Onion producers lose N2.4bn to fire, suspend supply to South-East

Onion producers and marketers say they have suspended supply of the commodity to the South-East as a result of escalating cases of attacks by gunmen in the region and other forms of insecurity.

This came as farmers and marketers reported a loss of N2.4bn worth of onions to fire in Sokoto State.

National President, Onion Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Aliyu Isah, announced the suspension of onion supply to the South-East on Wednesday.

He said the association’s decision was based on the recent hijack of two of their trucks by gunmen suspected to be members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra.

Gunmen suspected to be members of IPOB have been attacking critical public infrastructure in the South-East for some weeks now while also killing security operatives.

Last week, they hijacked two truckloads of onions from the North in Imo State and distributed their contents to the public.

Speaking on fire destruction of onion, one of the victims, Umaru Aliyu Gidan Fadama, said that the fire started from Yan doya market otherwise known as Ramin Kura.

According to him, it started around 12.30am on Wednesday.

He said, “We were told that it started from a Golf vehicle that was offloading yams at the market and later spread to other places including our storage facilities.

“I personally lost 60 bags of onion and I know some that have lost more than 100 bags.”

President of OPMAN told said that 200,000 bags of onion worth N2.4bn were lost to the fire.

“We are only praying to God to bring succour to them but it was a terrible and unfortunate incident,” he said.

He also said the problem could lead to a serious onion crisis in the country because most of the affected producers and marketers had lost their investment.

He said, “Some of the farmers sell their produce to buy input for the upcoming season and with this development, they cannot go back to the farm.”