People of Mgbarakuma Ubakala, in Umuahia South Local Council of Abia State, yesterday, embarked on a peaceful protest to the abattoir in their community, calling on the state government to remove the facility and specifically, relocate it to the State Cattle Market, at Lokpa, in Umunneochi Council.
The cattle market was recently converted to a non-residential conventional daily market by the state government, following reports and allegations that criminals resided there and also used it as a base to carry out crimes in the area.
The protesters accused butchers at the abattoir of not only extorting money illegally from them but also assaulting people and selling hard drugs.
Their traditional ruler, Eze Ebere Ubani, said the butchers, over the years, refused to pay royalties to the community for donating its land.
Inscriptions on the protesters’ placards read: “We shall never give up what belongs to us; land allocated without development over the years must be revoked and returned to the owner; we say no to imposters; our women have no place to farm while our land is not being developed by government.”
It was alleged that many of the butchers are indigenes of Umuahia North Local Council and that they intimidate residents, forcing them to pay entry fees before purchasing meat at the abattoir.
The traditional ruler said: “When I became the monarch of this community and convened a meeting between the butchers and our people, the butchers wanted to meet with me privately but I insisted otherwise.
Instead of cooperating with us, they wrote me a stinker, claiming that I cannot do anything because they have the backing of the then state government. They even threatened to report me to a Speaker of the state House of Assembly. But I had to tolerate this because I wanted peace to reign.
This abattoir has been here for 30 years without any good impact on our community. Apart from this abattoir, other lands belonging to us were also acquired by the Federal Government to build the Nigeria immigration office, and prison. But no compensation was paid to our people.”
He said the people want the government to revoke agreement with the butchers and give the land back to the community, so that women could farm on it.”
He said: “We are also telling the government to always involve us, whenever they want to give our land to any institution for development, so that we can negotiate on how our youths can be employed.”
The traditional Prime Minister, Christian Ndu Onyebuchi, and the Women Leader, Nwanna Udo, separately, re-echoed the alleged inhumane treatment by the butchers against the community, saying: “The butchers are collecting money from our women who are selling vegetables at the abattoir on our own land. We say no to that!”
However, President of the Butchers Association, Umuahia chapter, Ngozi Williams, denied the allegations by the community, describing the protest as a surprise.