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| Four cows and 37 butchers have been arrested by for operating at
an illegal slaughter slab at Otto Awori area of Badagry, Lagos,
southwest Nigeria. |
Officials of the Lagos State Government (the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives) in conjunction with the police taskforce have arrested stormed the area on Tuesday and arrested the cows and suspects.
The four cows were taken to Agege Abattoir, while four vans of butchered meat were carted away to the Taskforce office at Alausa where the suspects would be arraigned in court.
Adewunmi Olaseun, chairman of the illegal butchers, said they normally slaughter about 20 cows on daily basis, while paying N18,000 levy to officials of the Lagos State Government and N5,000 to the Otto Awori Local Council Development Area, LCDA, on weekly basis.
He said the association did not know that they were operating at an illegal slaughter slab.
According to Olaseun, the meat being sold by the butchers was not contaminated, stressing that “the fact is that we also consume the meat at times.
So, there is nothing wrong with the meat. We consume it. Our wives also consume it, so it is safe for consumption.
We have the receipts of the payment made to the government in our office.”
When asked why they attacked government officials with arms, he said: “The arms on us were to protect us against armed robbers.
