All slaughterhouses in Ibadan illegal since 2014 ―Oyo govt

More reasons for the resolve of the Oyo state government to move all butchers in Ibadan to Amosun village, Akinyele local government, emerged on Thursday, with the disclosure that all slaughterhouses in Ibadan had become illegal since 2014.

Executive Secretary, Oyo State Bureau of Investment Promotions and Public Private Partnership, Mr Yinka Fatoki who made this disclosure, said this stemmed from the withdrawal of the licenses of slaughterhouses by the state Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development owing to unhygienic practices of meat handling by the butchers.

Speaking at a press conference held at State Secretariat, Ibadan, against the backdrop of the violence at Bodija abattoir, Fatoki said it had since 2014 put the butchers on notice that they will be relocated.

Bemoaning Thursday’s violence as being carried out by recalcitrant butchers cum market persons, Fatoki said it had also on April 4, 2018 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Nigeria Union of Butchers (NUB), Oyo State Chapter and an investor, C & E Consulting Ltd, on the need for the butchers to relocate to Amosun abattoir.

According to Fatoki, speaking alongside Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr Toye Arulogun, the MOU also contained a promise by the state government to lend the butchers some money to purchase vehicles to convey their meat for sale.

This is as he said that the state government had also addressed the fears of the butchers of security and transportation by erecting a security post at Amosun and mandating the popular state mass transit buses “Ajumose” to create four routes to the area.

ALSO READ: Oyo govt allays butcher’s fear on abattoir relocation

Speaking at the conference, Secretary, NUB, Oyo state, Mr Lateef Olagoke said members were not oblivious of the 2014 notice for them to leave for Amosun abattoir.

He said that this was evidenced by the fact that some butchers actually left for Amosun then but later returned to Bodija market following several pleas with the state government to tarry.

Though he said the association regularly updated members with agreements with the state government, Olagoke said there were still some members who believed that they were being bribed by the state government to force them out of Bodija market, and remained unyielding.

Meanwhile, South West Coordinator of the Butchers association, Mr Buliaminu Elesinmeta has asked the state government to bring to book those behind the violence.

Describing the Bodija market incident as saddening, he said it was unbelievable that legitimate butchers were behind the violence.

In his own comments, Babaloja, Bodija market, Mr Aderemi Jimoh, has urged the state government to open other unaffected sections, rather than close the market entirely.

He argued that many residents of the state will be deprived of their daily bread if the market was closed for long.