Cement Price: Bricklayers Set Oct 19 for Protest

• Cement Price: Bricklayers Set Oct 19 for Protest

Bricklayers under the aus-pices of Lagos State Bricklayers Association have concluded arrangements to organise a one-day peaceful rally on October 19 to protest the high price of cement across the country.

In a letter to the Inspector-General of Police through the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, the association said the rally would take off from 7Up bus stop, Alausa in Ikeja, and terminate at the governor’s office.

A copy of the letter signed by the association’s President, Deacon Abel Kayode, and General Secretary, Akinmoladu Olaniyi, dated September 19, said the rally was aimed at “informing and seeking the intervention of the governor on our distress and inability to cope with the high price of cement”.

The price of cement, a major component in the building and construction industry, recently rose from N1,600 to between N2, 000 and N2, 600 per bag. This did not go down well with bricklayers, with kayode calling on the Federal Government to intervene to bring down the price failing which the associations’over 500 members would carry out a rally.

Kayode said the anguish of the association’s members over the sudden increase in the price of cement had been compounded by lack of options or choices of cement brands to buy as was the practice in the past.

“We are stock with only two brands of cement across the country, Dangote and Lafarge, hence the manufacturers’extremely high price of cement,” he added.