The
Cattle Dealers Association, United Butchers Association and the Myetti Allah
Cow Dealers Oko Oba, Abbattoir, Agege,
Lagos State, who described themselves as ‘stakeholders,’ have demanded
compensations following demolition of the market on Sunday.
This was even as they cried out that the present state
of the area could lead to breakout of epidemic. The
men accused the state commissioner for agriculture of reneging on an earlier
agreement over modalities for demolition.
Alhaji Bello Dan-Mubaffa, the Seriki
Fulani and the leader of the market, said: “We had an agreement with government
that it wouldn’t destroy bathrooms, toilets and mosques. When they came on
Sunday, they destroyed two mosques and most of the bathrooms, leaving only two
standing. We suspects the two belong to a top government official.”
Alhaji Bashiru Alamin, Assistant Secretary, Cattle
Dealers Association, said that each of the demolished 24 public toilets and
bathrooms cost over N20million.
Alamin said: “The commissioner assured us
that those toilets and bathrooms wouldn’t be demolished. He even told us to
paint them Lagos colour.”
According to them, they would ensure that no cow is
brought into state if the Lagos State Government refuses to compensate them.
One of them said: “This used to be the biggest
abattoir in the state. Almost 10,000 people, including traders now defecates in the open. This started after the demolition.
Several public toilets were destroyed during the demolition.”
There is also acute water shortage
at the Oko-Oba Abattoir as residents and traders now rely on water vendors
to take care of over 20,000 cows, which are daily brought into the market.
Dan-Mubaffa said the traders had a
series of meeting with the Lagos State Government officials.
He noted that an agreement was
reached on demolition.
Dan Mubaffa added: “Before now,
there has been a cordial relationship between us and the Lagos State
Ministry of Agriculture. We communicated with each other on how to move the
market forward. We thought we were at peace with them. We used to give the Ministry
daily reports of the market. We had more than six meeting on this demolition.
“We met with the Commissioner for Agriculture
and agreed on the demolition. We have been expecting them before they arrived
on Sunday. Over the years, since we were relocated here, during Marwa’s
administration, the government has continued to promise us infrastructure. They
promised to develop this market, but they didn’t.”
He explained that they decided to
give the market a facelift since government was not willing to fulfill its
promise. Dan-Mubaffa alleged hate of northerners from a certain quarters.
He said: “If the Lagos State
government is tired of us, they should give us notice to relocate to our
state or another state. No single cow will come into Lagos from the north if
the state government does not compensate us.”
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