Police on Sunday arrested the owners of Kairaba Shopping Centre for selling overpriced foods and other essential items during the coronavirus lockdown.

A team of undercover police officers raided the supermarket over the weekend after a tip off that the owners were taking advantage of the lockdown to inflate the prices on essential items.

The owners of the supermarket, who are Lebanese nationals, have been charged under Section 7(1) of the Essential Commodities Emergency Power Regulation 2020. They have been granted bail. 

Police spokesman Lamin Njie said: “It’s part of our duty to check on overpricing or hiking of commodity prices within the market.”

The Gambia declared a state of emergency on Friday to combat the Covid-19 coronavirus rampaging the world and introduced price control on all essential food items. The Barrow government warned business owners of punitive measures including jail term if they violate the price control regulation.