‘Suya’ Sellers Decry Hurtful SMS …Say Our Businesses Are Dying

Sellers of roasted beef popularly known as suya and other petty traders in Port Harcourt,, the Rivers State capital have complained about a flying text message being circulated among some GSM telephone users to the effect that some muslims were planning to poison such food stuffs meant for consumption by the general public.

In two separate interviews, Sani Maitama who plies his trade at the Trans-Amadi Slaughter round-about and Abubakar Yahaya, of Victoria Street, near the former Romeo Hotel said they had recorded drastic drop in the sale of the commodity, and  blamed mischief makers for circulating such outright falsehood.

The offending text message which was also sent to some editors of The Tide newspaper warned  members of the public against buying foodstuffs and other fast foods around churches and crusade grounds, warning that such edibles might be poisoned.

But a Muslim community leader, the Sarkin Hausawa of Rivers State, Alhaji Isa Madaki dismissed the messages as deliberate falsehood intended to damage the good relationship which the Husa/Fulanis have been enjoined with the very hospitable Rivers people.

In an exclusive interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt, yesterday, Alhaji Madaki described the purported text message as the handiwork of detractors.

Alhaji Madaki said that there was no time the Hausas in Rivers State planned such an evil act.

The Sarkin Hausawa used the occasion to call on security agencies to investigate the source of the text messages while urging the people of Rivers State to disregard the purported messages.

Also reacting, the Pastor of Ascension Church, Pastor Ocran Okahi described the rumour as the figments of some people’s imagination, stressing that there was no way a true Moslem could plan such an evil against Christians.

He noted that adherents of the two faiths had lived together since the amalgamation of the country in 1914, adding that such rumours were cheap blackmail against the Moslems.