Osun Market Women Protest Use of Standard Measuring Scales
Market women in Osogbo, Osun State capital trooped to the streets Thursday to protest the standard measuring scales introduced by the state government.
The traders who caused momentary gridlock at the popular Ola Iya junction during their peaceful protest insisted that the measure is causing them great loss.
The state government had launched the measuring devices in June last year and directed the traders to adopt them, but the traders shunned it and had been using their traditional hand-measure, popularly called ‘kobiowu/kongo.’
However, some officials of the state government on Tuesday besieged various markets in the state to enforce the use of the scales on the traders threatening that erring traders would be punished.
But the traders accused the state government of selling the scales at exorbitant rates, lamenting 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 ‘osuwon 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.
Government however insisted that compliance with the new measuring scales is in the best interest of both the buyers and sellers.
According to the governor then, “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, chaff, barks and other rubbish are included in goods sold, with the intention of reducing the actual value of what the buyers take home”.