The House of Representatives has said it will investigate the daily increases in prices of commodities in the country which have become alarming.
The resolution was taken at Thursday’s plenary, following two separate motions by Jesess Okey-Joe Onuakalusi (LP, Lagos) on the need to awaken the Price Control Board of Nigeria to its constitutional responsibilities and Wale Hammed (APC, Lagos) on the need to fund medical research institutions to combat future unforeseen novel medical challenges.
Moving his motion, Onuakalusi accused the Price Control Board of Nigeria of abandoning its responsibilities to the marketers, who are now responsible for increasing the prices of commodities with impunity and to the detriment of consumers.
Regretting the development, the lawmaker, decried that while prices of commodities have continued to increase on daily basis in our markets, salaries of Nigerian civil servants have not changed.
The Act establishing the Price Control Board, he said gave it the responsibility of overseeing and enforcing price control regulations and also established for each state, a committee to be the Price Control Committee to advise and assist the Board on the implementation of this Act.
He said efforts as stated in the law have not yielded any result as the Board has remained inactive.
Onuakalusi further stated that the responsibilities of the Price Control Board of Nigeria are to regulate the prices of all commodities in Nigeria and ensure that the marketers comply for the prices to be comparable with the income of the Nigerian civil servants.
He argued that this trend of leaving the prices of commodities at the marketer’s discretion is affecting mostly low-income earners and also increasing crime, as individuals unable to afford to purchase at an exorbitant price will resort to other means or steal.
He regretted that the Price Control Board of Nigeria did not take action to checkmate this menace of daily price increases.
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