It’s less than 5 days to Christmas yet traders are still lamenting low patronage. 

Correspondent Allwell  Ene who went to the creek road and Mike 3 markets witnessed a low number of customers buying goods.

Some traders said they are however believing God that patronage would improve while decrying the increase in the cost of goods particularly staple food and livestock.

Our correspondent reports that a bag of Nigeria rice formerly sold for N48,000 is now N40,000, A bag of iron beans which sold two weeks ago for N45,000  now goes for  N50,000, A five litre of ground nut oil now goes for N7500 as against N3500,  A roll of sachet tomato is now N450 against N300 while a  basket of tomatoes that earlier went for N2500 now sells for between N8000 to N10,000.

A visit to the mile 3 livestock market pegs a sizeable goat at 45k while a ram ranges from between N50, 000 to N60, 000.

The traders while speaking with our correspondent pleaded with the government to open the border so as to reduce the price of goods. 

Cue traders on Christmas sales. 

Also, customers were not left out in lamenting the high cost of goods. 

Some customers seen at the market say they can no longer purchase what they need following scarcity of funds. 

A cloth seller Kalu said he makes low sales as people no longer show interest in buying clothes but concentrate more on buying foodstuff.