Beef Scarcity Hits Ilorin as Butchers Embark on Two days Strike

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

Beef scarcity has hit Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, as butchers in the city embarked on a two-day strike over the high price of cattle.

A visit by THISDAY to some of the abattoirs in Ilorin yesterday showed that there was no cow butchered for sale.

Reports from other slaughter houses visited by THISDAY in Ilorin-Ipata, Mandate, Oja-Tuntun, and private abattoir-also complied with the two-day strike.

Some of the meat sellers who trooped out in the morning to buy meat from slaughter houses were disappointed.

The Chairman of the Cattle Sellers Association of Nigeria, Olusola Saraki Abattoir, Akerebiata, Alhaji Lam Abdulrasaq, attributed the incident to the high cost of cattle due to banditry and kidnapping.

He added that they were always running at loss due to the high price of cattle, and customers can’t afford the meat in the open market.

Abdulrasaq, however, appealed to the state government to assist the state butchers, saying they are being neglected in so many areas.