Ahead of Eid Kabir, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has issued a warning to livestock traders selling along major traffic corridors in the nation’s capital , adding that violators will be prosecuted.
The warning was made by Comrade Ikharo Attah, Chairman of the FCT Ministerial Committee on City Sanitation, while leading a team on a raid of an illegal ram market near Dutse Alhaji on Friday.
He stated that the administration would go to court to seek forfeiture orders against offenders.
Attah, who pointed out that the Administration had previously sacked the market, warned that rams discovered in illegal mark-ups would be killed.
While speaking to news men shortly after the raid Attah explained that , “We want to get the ram selling very organised but we found out that people appear not to be willing to sell rams in a organised manner. We have given them points where they can sell rams so that those who want to buy will do so and sacrifice to Allah in line with the teachings of Islam, but to our utmost shock, But persons just want to do what they like and they went to Dutse Alhaji, around the Public Service institute to create a ram market which we had sacked in 2019.
“What we did today, we saw that the rams came and we rushed there but before we got there they had evacuated the rams and ran away. We want to insist that everyone who wants to sell rams in this city must do that in only designated areas. We have the Dei-Dei ram market, the Kugbo ram market and all the abattoirs in Abuja which also have their ram markets attached and some few designated selling points in the city center.”
He also warned that, “We will be confiscating rams that people bring and sell on unapproved areas and we will be taking them to court, praying the judges to grant us forfeiture order and when we get these orders we give all the rams we seized to the orphanages and less privilege people to use for their Sallah celebrations.”
However , the Head of Monitoring and Inspection, AEPB, Mr. Kaka Bello, while reacting to the sudden reappearance of ram sellers in the area, said the Administration will re-enforce the evacuation order on the illegal market.
Recounting the earlier evacuation order, Kaka said, “If you remember some years back there was an illegal market there which we just received information that the ram market is back. Having removed the market before now and warned the ram sellers not to comeback there but unfortunately we received an information that they have commenced sales of ram there and that is why we are here and then make sure that we remove them and prosecute them but when we got there they have already left, but we will keep on monitoring, to make sure they don’t come back and if they do we will not hesitate to confiscate the rams and the owners and then charge them to court.”
He asked the livestock sellers to move to the designated markets, warning that the FCTA will not condone situations where people take advantage of festive periods to litter the streets and road corridors with livestock, as “its unhealthy and we will not allow that.”
