In protest of Chinese companies operating in the mineral-rich local government of Ivo Local Government Area in Ebonyi State raising the price of materials, the Stone Dealers Association and the Truck Owners Association in that area have closed.

In addition, the two associations closed for business in opposition to the Chinese companies’ increase in haulage prices.

The groups pledged to resume operations once the costs of the materials and haulage were lowered when they closed their doors for business last week.

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The Amaeze branch of the Ivo Association of Stone Dealers, led by Mr Njoku Godwin Uchechi, said they were protesting the constant rise in material prices in the industry, which he claimed was negatively impacting the association.

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“We have lost our customers to our neighbouring villages like Lokpanta and Uturu in Abia State, because this business is very competitive, haulage business is competitive.

“We were paying N4,000 per tonne after which the Chinese increased it to N9,500, they increased it again to N12,900. This time around, they have increased it to N18,300 per tonne which is not favourable to us.

“We want the government to call them to order because the government has fixed prices of shippings. The prices should come down to enable us to survive in the business,” he said.

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On his part, the chairman of Anor Stone Dealers Association in the local government, Mr Chukwu James Okafor, said all the sizes of stones are affected in the price increment.

“They increased the prices of these shippings to 50 per cent which is not supposed to be so. We are not against the increment but it is very harsh on us and it is affecting us in the business. We are the marketers and they are the producers. We are supposed to have mutual understanding with them so that it will not affect the marketers.

“We are calling on the state government to come to our aid because the investors are suppressing us. We are suffering while they are enjoying. After getting all these exorbitant fees from us, they convert it into dollars and send to their country,” he said.

He stressed that the two associations will not open operations except the prices are reduced.

“As you can see, no truck is loading any chipping in Ivo and it will remain like that. We started doing this last week and we are not relenting until the right thing is done,” said Okafor.

Efforts made by ZINGTIE to get reactions from one of the Chinese firms operating in the area, at the time of filing in this report, were unsuccessful.

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