Recent reports alleging that sick animals are slaughtered daily at the Oko-Oba Abattoir in Agege, Lagos, have raised questions about the state of affairs at the facility, but stakeholders in the meat industry have rebuffed such allegations. OZIEGBE OKOEKI reports
With no fewer than 1,000 cows slaughtered daily and transported to various markets across Lagos, the abattoir at Oko-Oba in Agege, an outskirts of Lagos, is a key player in the meat supply chain in Lagos State. Millions of households and businesses rely on it to meet their needs for beef.
Established over 35 years ago, the abattoir managed by Harmony Abbatoir Management Services is arguably the largest in the state as it continues to attract thousands of meat merchants from across the country on a daily basis.
But in recent times, the facility has come under public scrutiny over its poor state with residents of the surrounding estates complaining bitterly about the stench emanating from the abattoir which can be felt as far as about 50 metres away. This has become too much them to bear coupled with its attending health hazards. They have also been vocal in calling for the government to either relocate the abattoir or find a lasting solution to curtail the environmental hazard posed by the presence of the facility in their area.
More worrisome, however, is the recent allegation that about 200 sick cows are slaughtered daily in the abattoir. The reports had alleged that sick animals were being brought into the state and slaughtered for human consumption, an allegation vehemently denied by the management.
And in a move to further sanitise the abattoir and make it conform to best practices, the state government last year took stakeholders in the meat chain including butchers to Kenya and Botswana to understudy how the industry is run in those countries with a view of replicating same in the state.
When The Nation visited the facility last week, some of the stakeholders, who were part of the entourage to Kenya and Botswana dismissed the allegation of slaughtering of unhealthy animals.
The Chairman, Lagos State Butchers, Abattoir Branch, Alhaji Barki Yusuf told The Nation that there has been huge improvement in the operation of the abattoir since their return from the trip.
He said, “I can speak authoritatively on behalf of the butchers. The preparations that we are urged to adhere to, we have put them in place, our uniforms, boots, helmet and hand gloves and everything are now being installed now.”
But, Yusuf fumed at the reports suggesting that butchers in the abattoir deliberately slaughter sick cows on a daily basis. Explaining the situation, he admitted that most of the animals brought into the state from the northern part of the country, spend about seven days on the road making some of them unfit for slaughtering on arrival.
He, however, said such animals if found unhealthy, are taken to the veterinary doctors in the abattoir for observation and treatment over a period of time before they can be taken to the slaughter slab.
“It’s a big lie, you can see for yourself that the cows we slaughter here are healthy cows and you can also see the one that is stressed. If you don’t know the difference between stressed animals and sick animals, that’s when one can make such conclusion from afar. We don’t know where such information that we slaughter sick animals here came about, but we always ensure that the animals are healthy before we slaughter them.”
Yusuf, however, raised concern over the state of the abattoir calling on management to rise to the challenge and put the necessary structures in place to ensure the slaughter slab is kept clean at all times.
Corroborating Yusuf’s position, another official, Alhaji Taofik Olaleye, said the trip to Kenya exposed them to the standard required for abattoirs stressing that they would not be party to cutting corners,
He said, “That (slaughtering sick animals) is not true, we see this as politically motivated because this abattoir does not condone killing of sick cows. Since we returned from Kenya, all the stakeholders here, all the equipment and uniforms we were asked to introduce are ready and we are waiting for the management of the Abattoir to begin enforcement,” Olaleye said.
On his part, General Secretary, Butchers Stakeholders, Abattoir complex, Aminu Tanko Sadiq, who gave more insight into the process of slaughtering animals described the allegation as unfortunate distinguishing between stressed and sick animals.
“You can’t blame the journalist who wrote such a thing, he’s a journalist, he does not have any idea of veterinary issues, he doesn’t know animals; the cattle industry is not in his line of business, but however, we do have animals that are stressed, by virtue of the fact that they travel very long distance over a number of days before they come to Lagos market.
“Unfortunately, by the time they arrive, they are already stressed, there is traction in the blood, they cannot even stand. But we have veterinary doctors in the market that direct that such animals be kept for like a week, till they are certified fit and can stand on their own and walk. They are then taken to the slab for slaughtering purposes,” he said.
Sadiq, however, said that concerns about the environmental and unhygienic state of the abattoir are real and called on the government and the management to tackle the concerns immediately.
“By virtue of the Nairobi Declaration, it was jointly agreed by the butchers, stakeholders, management of the abattoir and the Ministry of Agriculture, that the slab should be upgraded to semi-mechanised status. The work started for some time and suddenly it stopped for reasons unknown to us. For now the work has stopped. If we want a way forward, it is better for the management to put that place in shape as directed by the Ministry, so that we move away from slaughtering on the ground to the hoisting semi-mechanised system
”Our hope is for the government to always uphold its policies, when policies come, there should be follow-up. When there is no follow up, it gives room for lapses like in the case of the semi-mechanised areas, it is better that government supervises, so that it would be in order. Aside that, there was also an agreement in the Nairobi Declaration that there would be constant enlightenment from the government to the butchers, it has not commenced, but we are hopeful, we are putting a lot of things in place, government too is preparing to turn the abattoir around and maybe they are waiting so that all can take off at the same time. But enlightenment is very important in the meat industry that is one of the things we have been yearning for, if there is enlightenment about wrongdoings, people will change.”
Meanwhile, the state government through the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, says it is not relenting in its effort at ensuring that only wholesome meat is sold to its citizenry, a situation which made the Ministry to recently clamp down on illegal abattoirs and slaughter slabs operating in the state in order to avert incidents of diseased and infected animals.
Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, who recently held a meeting with stakeholders of the Oko-Oba Abattoir disclosed that animals slaughtered at illegal abattoirs are not hygienic and not in compliance with the relevant laws governing meat slaughtering in the state.
He said intervention measures have already commenced by government saying that for a start, the entire abattoir would be fenced to control unauthorised access to the facility.
He added, “The slaughter slab would also be fenced with modern wire mesh and only authorised persons and butchers that are fully clothed and protected would be allowed as an interim measure while the mechanise production line at Oko-Oba abattoir undergoes relevant rehabilitation.
“The transformation of the abattoir from its traditional operations to modern standard operation is a process that must be taken gradually. We have started the reform and we are not relenting in our efforts.”
Lawal added that meat transportation in the state has undergone various stages of development in the last seven years, from the use of carts to the use of tricycle. He said from the initial use of tricycle and air cool meat van, the state has adopted the use of Refrigerated Meat Van to transport meat within the metropolis.
According to him, 200 refrigerated Meat Vans have been provided to replace the air cool vans for healthy distribution of meat , adding that the Ministry placed an advert sometime last year in the media, with intention of licensing private companies to convert a number of the existing slaughtering slab to mechanize ones.
Lawal said, “We are very much concerned about the implication of consuming unwholesome meat. We cannot toy with the lives of over 20 million Lagosians and that is why as part of our pro-active measures, the Ministry recently led the stakeholders within the meat supply chain on a study tour of Kenya and Botswana Meat Commissions with the primary purpose of understudying the two countries and tap from their wealth of experience in animal husbandry, meat production, supply chain from farm to fork, food safety and control.”
He noted that his Ministry had developed a road-map policy document called the Strategic Programme for Accelerated Agricultural Growth (SPAAG), which relates all the key agric sub-sectors with the singular objective of improving agricultural output and productivity. Adding that “to sustain the momentum of progress, we have expanded the scope for private sector participation in all our projects, especially in the meat supply chain and across the entire agriculture value chain-pre-production; processing, packaging, storage, distribution, supported with modern technology”.
