Officials
of the Lagos State Environment and Special Offences Enforcement Unit
have confiscated dozens of rams on display for sale in a prohibited area
of the State.
The
task force from the governor’s office had chased the ram sellers who
converged at Ijora-Olopa area and carted their rams to an unknown
detention centre.
The
owners of the rams claimed they were unaware that their sales point was
prohibited and also claimed they were not forewarned.
The
ram sellers, with six days left to the Eid-el-Kabir festival, on
October 7, 2013, Monday, filed an appeal to Gov. Babatunde Fashola to
release the rams.
Mr. Muhammed Mudi, leader of the ram sellers, expressed shock over the development, saying that the situation was embarrassing.
Mr.
Mudi said that they were not expecting the officials since they had had
approached an official of the Ministry of Agriculture who gave them
permission to sell rams at the location.
“An
official from Agriculture Ministry gave us permission to use this
place, but I was surprised when I heard that he had been arrested.
“These ram sellers came from Sokoto State and they are not aware of the relocation order.
“That
is why we are appealing to the governor to allow us to make our sales
here this year; we promise not to bring our rams here next year,” he
said.
Mr. Mudi said that the task force came to the market and carted away their rams in trucks.
One
of the ram sellers, Sulaiman Saliu, said that bringing the rams to
Lagos was expensive and urged the government to allow them to sell their
rams.
“We
spent a lot of money to buy these rams and use N3,000 each to transport
them to Lagos without the other various charges from different local
governments.
“We plead with the government to tolerate us this year,” Saliu said.
He said that the dislocation would have effect on the price of the rams.
“If
we are sent away from this point, it will result in additional charges
on the ram because we will still pay for transporting them to a new
place. In fact, it is going to be a great loss on our own part and that
is why we are appealing to the government not to take our rams away from
here,” he said.
Mr.
Olaide Agboola, Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), who led the team,
said that the State Ministry of Agriculture had designated some
locations for sale of rams in the state.
Mr.
Agboola further stated that he had sent some officers to Ijora on
October 6, Sunday, who gave the ram sellers 24-hour deadline to vacate
the place.
“We
have told them that Lagos State Government will not tolerate littering
the state with wastes; they should go and sell their rams in designated
areas.
“I will make sure that not a single ram remains in this place today. This will serve as a lesson to other traders,” he said. Source: PM News
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1 comment:
This arrangement of giving people 24 hours ultimatum without previous enlightenment is not acceptable at all. If anything they should be allowed to sell this year and tidy the acts against next year after all this is an annual festival.this hurried action on the path of Lagos state is unacceptable.if you don't want people to bring rams then you can breed your rams here or import from the north sobA to fill the risks this people go through to bring this animals down south,nobody should allow this our brothers from the north to suffer further loss of revenue on account of failing to plan well and environmental cleanliness, was Rome built in a day.More embarrassing and disgusting is the fact that these people got permit from the supposedly supervising ministry of agriculture, why then is this embarrassment. Check your acts please.
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