Butchers in Gbagi market, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on Friday, clashed with officials of the State Joint task force team over enforcement of relocation order to Central Abattoir in Amosun, Akinyele Local Government Area of the state.
DAILY POST recalls that the state government under the leadership of Senator Abiola Ajimobi, few months ago had ordered all butchers in the 11 local government areas in Ibadan to relocate to a private abattoir situated at Amosun, a village in the outskirt of Ibadan.
The decision to move the butchers from some markets such as Bodija, Gbagi, Babarere, Gege and Oranyan among others was, however, resisted by the butchers who argued that the state government does not have the power to relocate them forcefully.
The relocation order later led to a clash between the butchers and men of the state police command, the mayhem which later claimed no fewer than three lives at Bodija market in June this year.
A human rights group, Veteran Organization for Human Rights (VOHRI) led by Comrade Sakirullah Busari (Lead Activist) and Comrade Adekunle Abimbola (General Secretary), after the incident insisted that the state government and the police should compensate the families of the victims for violating the victims’ fundamental human rights but DAILY POST gathered that nothing had been done by either the state government or the police to compensate the victims or their families since the unfortunate incident.
DAILY POST reports that though, no live was lost during the Friday’s clash, but no fewer than two buses of the Pacesetter Transport Services owned by the state government were vandalised.
It was gathered that the task force comprising officers of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), State Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, among others, had arrested some butchers for flouting the relocation order.
The butchers, it was learnt clashed with the task force team when they discovered that their members were being taken away in government’s busses.
The task force, it was gathered was compelled to release the arrested butchers so as to leave the volatile scene alive.
Executive Secretary, Oyo Bureau of Investment Promotion and Public Private Partnership, Mr Yinka Fatoki while reacting said the culprits had been identified and will be prosecuted.
Fatoki decried the butchers’ attack on the state government’s task force as impunity, pointing out that the government may be forced to increase the number of personnel in the task force to go all out against erring butchers. - DAILY POST
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