Several Abuja residents enjoy eating beef, but do not know the source, Michael Oche and Kehinde Ajobiewe, visited the Suleja abattoir which supplies meat to major parts of the city and write on its filthy state.
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A drive through the broad road that leads into the Suleja abattoir brings you face-to-face with blood stained slaughter lab which is a beehive of activities of slaughterers, who mill around the place waiting to make brisk business from customers and drivers alike.
A little step further reveals a thick black smoke which comes out from the activities of those roasting and processing the cow legs for anxious customers and meat sellers, who have several orders waiting. While trying to meander your way through the mud and cluster of butchers, you try howbeit effortlessly to breathe through the stench of mud, mixed with fresh blood of the slaughtered meat, and the acrid smell of the roasted cow legs.
As you walk a little closer to the slaughter lab, the odour of decomposing cow dung and flesh attracts a swarm of large blue-bottle flies that perch on anything from the meat sold nearby, in front of the abattoir, to food items and other goods sold around the premises.
As you approach the slaughter slab, you are assailed by youths who pester you with calls such as “oga na cow head? Abi na the leg”
Indeed, many residents of Abuja will be surprised to learn that the bulk of the meat they consume comes from this same dirty and unhealthy environment.
The abattoir was commissioned by the administration of former Niger State Governor, Abdulkadir Kure. But several years of neglect has left the once beautiful abattoir in a shadow of itself.
Even a first time visitor will readily notice that the pool of water does not flow anywhere. It flows only when it rains heavily and the water fills over. The area surrounding the slab of concrete cannot be said to meet any criteria or qualities of a modern abattoir anywhere, surprisingly, most of the meat consumed in Suleja and parts of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory is slaughtered here.
Heavy smoke billows from one end of the space allotted to the abattoir, adding to the general atmosphere of the place. Every now and then, blood stained young men run out of the slaughter house, load the meat on a bike or vehicle and head for the market.
Few metres from the fence of the abattoir are a group of young men who busy themselves smoking marijuana. With blood shot eyes, and daggers strap to their waist, most residents dread the boys who are popularly called ‘Kwata boys.’
Residents have decried the condition of the abattoir from which stench could be perceived by people passing through the major roads. Finding reveals that the decomposing animal wastes, mostly from the entrails of various animals slaughtered there over the years is not helping matters.
A resident, Ishiaku Muhammad, said, “The condition of the abattoir has worsened over the years and nobody seems to be doing anything about it.”
Investigation by our reporter shows that the butchers dump the animal waste without taking any sanitary steps into consideration. Not surprising, the accumulated faeces has become a resting place for maggots as a result of the insanitary condition of the environment.
Speaking to LEADERSHIP Sunday, a resident who lives close to the abattoir, Sunday Timothy said the unhygienic condition of the abattoir and the market where the meat is sold pose serious risks to the health of the people. He noted that the smell which the waste emits makes it even more difficult for residents.
According to him, “There is the need for hygienic provision for the disposal of animal wastes. I am telling you, we don’t sleep at night. Once this place begins to smell, you will perceive the odour even from about ten kilometres.”
The biggest problem at the abattoir is the lack of sanitation by the butchers. The butchers are uneducated and have no formal training on how to maintain hygiene. LEADESRSHIP Sunday finding further reveals that if the meats are unsold, they reappear the next day despite the absence of functional cold-rooms to preserve the unsold meat.
Meanwhile, all efforts to get comments of the state commissioners of Environment, Health and that of Agriculture proved abortive as they were not available, but while commenting on the problem, a local government staff who gave his name as Ahmed said the council was aware of the situation and was trying to see what it could do within the shortest possible time.
Speaking with LEADERSHIP Sunday, Dr. Aliyu Magudu of the Agricultural Research Institute said butchering animals in a dirty environment could make the meat unwholesome for human consumption, because if the animal is unhealthy, there could be contamination from the floor in which it is being butchered. “The meat will not be wholesome because there could be contaminations from the floor,” he said.
Apart from this, such meat cannot be exported, because there are certain conditions that must be met before any exporter of meat can carry out transactions in other countries.
According to him, “They will be monitored by the country that will be buying the meat, and if such country finds out that you butcher and prepare your meat in an unhealthy environment, you will be banned from bringing meat into the country.
Dr. Magudu also said there may be health implications in consuming meat from animals that are not vaccinated. According to him, “There are certain operations or procedures that need to be carried out on animals before and after they are butchered. First of all you have to check if the animals are healthy, those ones that are sick should be separated and treated, and after you have killed the animal and you discover that some of the parts are contaminated, you