By Jimoh Ahmed & Adedotun Aderoboye
Operators of the hospitality industry, Event Centres and planners, musicians and those in rental service are now counting their losses due to the economic downturn caused by scarcity of the naira notes.
Major cities that were usually brimming with series of social engagements particularly during the weekends are now quiet due to scarcity of naira and fuel.
Stakeholders in the entertainment and hospitality industries are also seriously lamenting the debts they have incured since the beginning of the crises which had been exacerbated by the fuel crisis.
A manager in one of the hotels in Akure, Mr Festus Alo said the rate at which people come for lodging, organise birthday parties, get to-gethers has dropped abysmally.
“Hardly do we get patronage in the last one month and we spent a lot to power our generator, pay staff and several other bills.
Also, an operator of Event Centre, Mr Matthew Kolawole said the sector is the most affected by the cash crunch, as many events had to be cancelled. Some bookings we were having before were either cancelled or suspended.
Those operating bukaterias are not also left out as our reporter gathered that some miscreants now hide under the scarcity of the naira to perpetrate illegal acts by eating without paying, pretending to transfer money when they know the food vendors are unbanked.
A photographer in Akungba Akoko said many people who attended social engagements shun their overtures to take pictures due to cash crunch while musicians who always rely on the spraying of naira notes went home unpatronised.
The Hope gathered that cases of burglary are now rampant, as people break into residences, steal food items, phones and other items from residents.
Worst hit are the new areas where the movement of the house owners are predictable and the target of the thieves are foodstuffs.
The perpetrators carry out the act particularly on Sundays when majority might have gone to church.
A petty trader who owns a stall in front of her house at Oluwadare, Adebowale Ondo road met her shop looted when she woke up early last Thursday.
In Ondo town, the rate of cases of burglary during which valuable items carted away are on the rise.
A resident who simply identified himself as Tomiwa who lives in Oka area of Ondo town described how his apartment was burgled when they went to church.
A trader, Mrs. Christianah Aduloju said “I am a trader and my shop is in front of my house. Last week, I closed my shop around 9 pm. Around 4 am, I heard people shouting in the next street because they were chasing a thief. I did not know that my shop had been robbed. When I woke up in the morning, I found out that my shop has been broken into and a lot food items were stolen. I quickly ran to the next street to explain what has happened to me. The night guards there said they saw someone carrying a bag at night and tried to stop him but he dropped the bag and he ran. They kept it for the owner. That was how I was able to recover the items. They said that the thief must be someone from the neighbourhood because how he escaped showed that he knew the street very well.”
A trader, Mrs. Oluwatosin Adetona described how her mobile phone was stolen from her shop and subsequently used to withdraw money from her bank account.
Her words “my shop is very close to Adeyemi. I have not experienced any form of robbery there until recently when someone stole my phone from my shop. It happened on one Friday last month. I tried to find the phone immediately but could not. When I went to withdraw money from a POS agent that evening, I realized that all my money has been withdrawn from the account. When I got to the bank on Monday, I realized that the thief had used my stolen phone to load airtime from my bank account and then transfered the airtime to another line. That was how I lost my phone and all the money in that account.”
Report from Owo said on Saturday, a petrol attendant got a fake alert from a motorist, who The Hope was told bought fuel worth N8,000 and made away with it.
According to the petrol attendant at a popular filling station in Owo, the motorist, in his early twenties came in to buy fuel and said he has no cash with and decided to make a transfer to settle his bill which she promptly got the alert.
She disclosed that when her boss decided to check the company’s account balance after an hour, it was discovered that it was a fake alert.
