At least three persons were injured on Wednesday at the Abakaliki Rice Mill Industry when two warring groups in the mill clashed over sale of the commodity.
The two groups known as Rice Millers and Blanders have been at war over size of bushel used in selling the commodity to the buyers.
The millers and their supporters had accused the blanders, who buy from them in large quantity and sell to the consumers, of using incomplete bushels to sell the commodity.
This, according to the millers, has adversely
affected the sells as customers no longer come to the mill to buy the commodity.
The millers resolved not to sell to the blanders. But the blanders confronted them on Wednesday and destroyed milled rice packaged by the millers.
Three persons were injured in the clash while many millers hurriedly shut their shops to prevent destruction of their commodity and other properties.
Innocent Achi, one of the millers, said “the rice millers are tired of fraud and want to be selling the rice themselves.
He said: “They millers said they don’t want the blanders . Chinedu Eshi my brother became angry and started scattering any rice they see because the millers said they will not sell rice to the blanders.
”If the normal bushel use in selling rice is 40 cups, their own will be 36. They will minus four cups. It is what the rice millers want that we are supporting”.
Another miller, Friday Okpoto said: “The problem is that they are people that are making use of incomplete tin to sell rice. They make use of fraudulent bushels.
“They are known as blanders. The bladders operate this way. When they buy rice from us , they will use incomplete bushel to sell it, therefore after buying rice, the rice would be incomplete. They millers do not want those people.
“Because we say we do not want them, the bladders went to the former Chairman because he is the one that constituted them.
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‘When the millers said they will not sell rice to them, they will come to your shop and start forcing you to sell rice to them, even they scattered millers rice. The rice millers are begging the government to intervene”.
One of the blanders, Nwali Nwakaego alleged that the millers don’t want them to survive.
She said: “The rice millers do not want us to stay in the rice mill. For over one month, we do not have anything doing.
‘We have approached them begging them to forgive us, but they refused that was why we went to the House of Assembly.
“Some of the rice millers said they should
not sell rice to again, that is why we started rioting.
“Since they say we will not sell our rice, we also will not allow them to sell their own as well. We are the one that poured their rice away. We are not using incomplete bushel.
“We cannot stay at home and allow hunger to kill our children. Our children no longer go to school and
are hungry.
“We have asked them to bring the bushel they want us to use. Even we are even ready to make use of the savage.
Chairman of the blanders, Mrs. Ununu Nenna said despite the intervention by the House of Assembly committee set up to look into the matter, which ordered that they should be allowed to do their businesses in the mill, the millers have refused to sell rice to them forcing them to resist it.
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