Yesterday, Lagosians got some relief as beef made a return to their meals. This is because the cattle sellers at the Lagos State Government Abattoir Complex, Oko-Oba in Agege, allowed the animals they had in stock to be sold and slaughtered, after the Cattle Dealers Association (CDA) and Food Stuff Merchants' Association of Nigeria reportedly suspended their seven-day warning strike over the weekend.
Beef and tomatoes became scarce since early last week as the transporters, who brought them in from the northern part of the country, stopped transporting the commodities into the markets in the South-West region due to what they called the ‘exorbitant taxes and levies' imposed on them by the state officials. Although the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, on Wednesday, attempted to persuade the striking cattle transporters to resume their trade immediately, the strike stretched into the weekend, causing residents to resort to alternative options.
Comeback beef
However, it was a welcome cacophony of meat hacking and price haggling as hundreds of cattle were slaughtered at the Oko-Oba Abattoir, even if it was still above the usual price. This place had been devoid of activities since last Tuesday as no cattle was killed there. The northern cattle traders allowed the sales because, as NEXT gathered, it was becoming too expensive to feed them, while the negotiations continued.
"The cattle owners said they didn't want the cows they brought in to die for nothing," a butcher, Akeem Alake, said in Yoruba. "They said the money they were using to feed them was too much so they are selling them off." The butchers, however, complained that they were buying for far above the normal market price.
The pace of work at the meat market was markedly higher than normal, as butchers, porters, knife carvers, and drivers of meat delivery vans tried to make up for lost time. However, an old hand in the market, Mumeni Ashipa, called for caution.
"With the rate at which people are buying and killing these cows, the whole thing may finish before night, because, as I'm talking to you right now, no truck has entered Lagos yet. All cattle you are seeing here are those brought in before the strike and they cannot last more than today," he said.
NEXT found very few tomatoes, pepper or beef for sale over the weekend and Monday at the markets in the Agege Local Government Area. When found, the price was too high for consumers.
"The tomato seller said two (fruits) for fifty naira," a bachelor, Ayo Oriola, said. "I couldn't buy it, so I'm going to buy tin tomatoes and turkey wings now."
Paying too much
A cattle trader, Quaseem Olushola, who brings in his animals from Gombe, said he supported the strike. He said it costs him more than 300% to pay officials for his cargo to pass through states in the south than in the north.
"A trailer will carry maybe 30 to 50 cows and the state will collect N10,000 as ‘Veterinary money" from us, no matter how many is in the trailer," he said. "In the north, they collect about N1, 500 but once we get to Kwara (State) we begin to pay big money."
Reports say the state government is currently trying to meet the demands of the traders to forestall a repeat of the action.
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