LASG Vows To Sanitise Mode Of Meat Transportation

The Lagos State Government has vowed to sanitise meat transportation in the state.

The government frowned at the unhygienic ways meat was being transported with motorcycles and  rickety vehicles, vowing that from January next year, it would stop such means of meat transportation.

Senior Special Assistance to the Governor on Agriculture and Cooperatives, Dr. Nureni Funsho, at a one-day sensitisation seminar on meat transportation in Lagos, said a new law was now in place to check the ways meat was being transported in the state.

He said a taskforce had been set up to begin arrest of people who use motorcycles, wheelbarrows and other unhygienic means of transportation   to convey meat.

Funsho stated that from January, no other means of transportation would be allowed to convey meat from abattoir to any part of Lagos State except in Eko Meat vans, saying that the services of the vans had been contracted out.

“Whether you slaughter big or small meat, it must be done in  abattoir in compliance with the law. The  operators of the meat vans will not reject any animal slaughtered; there is a field manager that is mandated to take meat from the abattoir to their destinations.

“We have about 200 vans to convey meat across Lagos and about 50 per cent of them are already in operation. Also, butchers are not allowed to engage in meat transportation anymore. You cannot be a butcher and at the same time be a transporter of meat.

He said government was ready to ensure that there would be no more unhygienic meat transportation in the state, as there is a taskforce in place to enforce the law.

Chairman, Lagos Taskforce on the Environment and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit, Bayo Sulaiman, said the taskforce would not spare anyone that violates the law on meat transportation, urging the public to cooperate with the government.

Sulaiman, who was represented by Adeolu Taiwo(DSP), said it is now out of place to transport meat with okada, saying the taskforce was determined to ensure absolute compliance in this regard.