A luxury bus with roasted animal skins suspected to be contaminated with toxin was last Monday intercepted by the joint taskforce monitoring team of the Rivers State Ministry of Agriculture and the state chapter of Nigeria Association of Agriculture Products Dealers (NAAPD) in the state.
The bus with inscription “Ifeanyichukwu Transport Services” was said to be arrested in Oyigbo area of the state at about 11.00am yesterday.
The bus was also said to be conveying the roasted animal skins from Kano State to Rivers State for sale.
Speaking with newsmen, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Charles Nworgu, said the state government had earlier given a warning against any roasted animal skin from outside the state, stressing that some of the animal skin were not from cow meat but from donkeys and premature dead animals.
Nworgu also stressed that most of the roasted animal skins were burnt with condemned motor tyres and plastics, which the Rivers State government is going against for healthy living in the state.
The commissioner who noted the new tactics of butchers with dismay, said the butchers rather than complying with the state government, decide to be using the motor tyres to roast the animal skins outside the state and bring same into the state for consumption.
Nworgu said the ministry decided to liaise with NAAPD to set up a monitoring team to monitor the movement of the butchers, who smuggled in bad agricultural products and the roasted animal skins into the state.
According to him, the ministry has handed over the luxury bus and animal skins to the police for thorough investigation.
He expressed optimism that the police will do justice on the matter and that the people involved would be prosecuted in accordance with the law.
Also speaking with newsmen, the state chapter chairman of Butchers Association of Nigeria, Musa Baba Ahmed said those smuggling in the roasted animal skins were not known to the association.
He said no member of the association was bringing roasted animal skins outside the state but meat and its skin that was slaughtered under the supervision of the Ministries of Health and Agriculture in the state.
According to him, the union has already warned against the smuggling of either roasted animal meat or meat that was not prepared under the supervision of the state ministries involved.
He said, some of the meats were not cow meat, but donkey and dead animal meats that were secretly smuggled into the state to tarnish the image of the genuine butchers in the state.

Enoch Epelle