Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi said yesterday that arrangement had been concluded by the government and stakeholders to ensure that the state- owned central abattoir would begin operations next month.
He said the disagreement and misgivings about the butchers in Ibadan moving to the abattoir had been laid to rest.
The governor spoke during a stakeholders’ meeting held at the House of Chiefs, Agodi Secretariat, Ibadan as part of efforts to proffer a solution to the issues surrounding the relocation of butchers to the central abattoir, located at Amosun village in Akinyele Local Government, on Ibadan-Oyo Expressway.
He said issues bordering on ownership structure of the facility, an arrangement involving Oyo State government, a private partner (C&E Consulting Ltd), the 11 local governments and local council development areas (LCDAs) in Ibadan and the butchers had also been resolved.
Noting the need for butchers in the local governments and LCDAs to relocate and utilise the facility at the central abattoir, the governor said the move would reduce clashes between cow herders and farmers, as well as promote hygiene.
Explaining the ownership structure of the facility, Ajimobi said the private partner had 50 per cent share, local governments and LCDAs 36 per cent, state government 10 per cent and the butchers with four per cent in ownership.
He added that C&E Consulting would have six representatives, two representatives from the state, two from the LCDAs and local governments and one from the butchers.
The Butchers Association, led by its Southwest Coordinator, Alhaji Biliaminu Elesinmeta and the Oyo State Chairman, Alhaji Azeez Alagunfon, thanked the Ajimobi administration for its support to the body.
They said the earlier misunderstanding between them and the government was caused by lack of information by the former administration in the state on the benefits accruable to the butchers from the central abattoir, urging the government to reduce the cost attached to each butchered cow.