The Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has raised alarm over the high cost of living in the country.

In a statement issued in Calabar on Tuesday by its Public Relations Officer, Mr. Okon Eyo Effiom, the group said Nigeria could no longer care for its citizens.

The statement read in part, “Even at Christmas, a period characterised by celebration and merriment, many people could not afford to cook the common rice meal for their families. Rice is the basic staple during such time but because of high level of poverty in the land many families could not afford to buy it.

“The standard of living in the country has depreciated abysmally in just one year and the cost of basic items has quadrupled beyond the reach of the ordinary person. This has made the citizens to easily succumb to diseases and death while others who are unable to bear the situation are killing themselves.

“Between 2015 and this year, the cost of living has risen by over 500 per cent which is way beyond the ordinary citizen which accounts for the high death rate through disease and suicide amongst our people.”

Azeez