The sealing of Sahad Store on Friday by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) in Abuja has elicited harsh criticism against the government.
Sahad Store, a popular supermarket in the Garki area of Abuja, was sealed for allegedly shortchanging customers by charging prices other than the price displayed at the shelves.
The federal government had earlier said the Department of State Services (DSS) and police would clampdown on businesses that hoard food items in the speculative bid to make huge profits.
Economist and Investment banker, Atedo Peterside, said the sealing of businesses would scare away foreign investors from bringing their capital into the country.
He said: “My question to those on the FG economic team on the sealing up of an Abuja Store as reported by @daily_trust is as follows: ‘Are these types of moves not likely to frighten away investors (local and foreign)?”
A former chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Professor Chidi Odinkalu, said the act of sealing the supermarket was akin to madness.
He said: “This is madness. How can they even think this is sensible? This combines desperation with xenophobia in one stroke. What’re Sahad supposed to do if not reflect their market realities? Whoever thought that @officialABAT will become worse than @MBuhari 1984?!”
But a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos, Demola Olarewaju, said the action of the federal government was in order.
He said: “The targets of any immediate protests now may be the warehouses of entrepreneur wholesalers, trading merchants and other such businesses. Steps taken by the APC admin are a subtle nod in that direction. I hope Team ‘Let-Tinubu-Have-It’ understand the man we’re dealing with.”
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