Residents of Zamfara State have blamed the Federal Government for the sharp rise in cost of living.

A businessman in the State, Alhaji Aminu Abubakar said the Government should be held responsible for the insecurity and socio-economic challenges ravaging the entire country.

In an interview with newsmen in Gusau, the State capital, he pointed out that the citizens were dying on a daily basis due to security challenges, hunger and starvation.

Abubakar pointed out that security of lives and properties of the citizens was no longer guaranteed.

“From all indications, the protection of lives and properties of the citizens has gone beyond the power of the federal government.”

“If the citizens cannot be adequately protected and they are living in abject poverty, then we are in a serious mess.” he lamented.

He further decried that “Zamfara State government for instance has not paid its civil servants their constitutional salaries and allowances for November, 2022, yet hundreds of millions of naira is being wasted in the name of politics.”

In his own comments, a public commentator, Alhaji Ahmed Bakare said that the main cause of food inflation was insecurity.

According to him, farmers were not allowed to engage in their farming activities by the ravaging bandits, stressing that those who were bold enough to go to their farms, increased their prices to recover the cost.

A farmer in the State, who put his name as Haruna Yahaya, explained that most villages in the State have to pay millions of naira imposed on them as levies by the bandits before they could be allowed to farm.

“And we have to include these levies we pay to bandits in our prices. Without that, we will be operating on a uge loss.” he said.