Traders in Osun State on Thursday took over major areas in Osogbo, the state capital, in protest against the state Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, accusing him of forcing them to use the recently inaugurated standard weighing scales to sell their products.
The traders argued that the measuring device had been causing them untold loss of profits.
The state government had launched the scales in June last year, but the traders had shunned it and had been using their traditional hand-measure, popularly called “kobiowu/kongo.”
But on Tuesday, some officials of the state government besieged various markets in the state to enforce the use of the scales on the traders, threatening that erring traders would be punished.
But on Thursday, the protesting traders, most of whom were market women, stormed the popular Ola-Iya Junction and other areas around 12:00pm and refused to leave the roads for about an hour, a development that necessitated heavy traffic snarl along the busy roads.
They accused the state government of selling the scales at exorbitant rates and lamented that its usage had been having negative effects on their businesses.
While claiming that their customers had been complaining about the scales, also known as “Osun Omoluwabi”, the market women marched to the state secretariat at Abeeree, where they chanted anti-government songs and accused Governor Aregbesola of short-changing them with the compulsory usage of the scales.
Speaking with our correspondent during the protest, one of the market women, Mrs. Fadilat Akanji, said they were from all the markets in the state and that they were rejecting the policy because the scales had been causing them shortages.
Akanji, who spoke in Yoruba, said, “We have been experiencing shortages since few of us started using the scales. Even our customers are complaining against the scales. Imagine the government forcing an aged colanut seller to use scales. I sell palm oil and I bought the scale at the rate of N2,500, but I now regret buying it because it has caused damages to my business. All of my colleagues are also complaining bitterly. Some of the scales are even sold for N7,500 to N25,000, depending on the kind of wares you sell. We can’t accept it. Never.”
The protesters, however, asked the government to provide hand measure (Kobiowu/Kongo) for their use, stressing that there was no way they could accept the standard weighing scales.
The government had launched the scheme with market women and men to ensure that people get value for their money on whatever they buy from market, and also to protect the traders from unprofitable commercial transactions.
Governor Aregbesola, while launching the standard weighing scale last year, had assured that the scheme would eliminate cheating and other underhanded practices that had become the hallmark of trading in most markets.
The governor had then said, “In the quest to be competitive and make more profit, which is driven by greed, traders now devise varying means of short-changing buyers. Measures are deliberately reduced through cutting, filling with candles and wax, and sleight of hand. Scales are tilted fraudulently while husks, chaffs, barks and other rubbish are included in goods sold, with the intention of reducing the actual values of what the buyers take home.”
