By Dwelleth Morountodun
Following the 11 PM deadline for total lock down of all activities in Abuja, Lagos and Ogun States, by President Muhammadu Buhari, residents of Abuja and some satellite towns frantically besieged banks, market places and shopping malls to buy stocks that will take them during the 14 day lock down.
While observers could not immediately place banks whether they are essential service providers, some branches of first and second generation banks initially felt reluctant to open for business until 9 A.M.
At Kubwa, a satellite town in the FCT, the banks that eventually opened for business became overwhelmed as they sought support from security agencies to contain the crown. Our checks at Bwari, the Headquarters showed that Polaris bank did not open for business as it’s teeming customers were referred to their Kubwa branch.
As a result of the large crowd the 1.5 metre social distancing as prevention measure against the CoronaVirus feel flat on its face as the bank find it difficult to attend to the customers even when an order of 10 persons per ground was put in place.
At the popular Wuse, Utako and Kubwa markets, marketers had a field day as prices of food skyrocketed by about 100%. Mrs. Alice Ojoge, a yam seller at Kubwa, said the costing of transporting her goods from Benue State to Abuja went by 100%.
While some shopping malls shut down for fear of forced closure by security agencies, some who however retained their usual market mark up for their goods.