Bayelsa State Government is to streamline the activities of livestock dealers  to rid the state’s livestock sub-sector of illegal dealers and alleged infested meat brought from neighbouring states and sold to unsuspecting consumers in the state.

Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Blesson Akpuluma, who stated this in his office when  a delegation of the Bayelsa State Livestock Dealers Association visited him said his office has received the reports of some persons who had hijacked the livestock business in the state and posing as agents of the ministry to collect N2,000 tariffs daily for each cow slaughtered in the state. Akpuluma said his ministry was determined to streamline livestock dealership and ensure a hygienic environment at abattoirs within the state capital for safe consumption of meat. He said a committee comprising relevant ministry staff and selected members of the association, to be headed by the Permanent Secretary, Frazer Okuoru, would be set up to design a proposal on livestock dealership in the state. Akpuluma, who commended the association for the visit, urged peace and brotherliness in business relations among its members, saying he was delighted at the fact that non-indigenes were also members of the association. Earlier, the Patron of Bayelsa State Livestock Dealers Association, Lionel Jonathan-Omo, had explained that the association was at the ministry to introduce its leadership to the commissioner. Jonathan-Omo, who is a former Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, said the state’s Ministry of Justice had already given official backing to the association and its activities. While calling on government to designate three abattoirs in Yenagoa for effective control, he drew the attention of the commissioner to the existence of illegal livestock dealers and agents whose stock in trade, were to sell disease-infested meat to consumers and demand tariffs that were not remitted to the state coffers.