Tension in Edo as butchers clash, wants police, government intervention

By Ozioruva Aliu

BENIN CITY- THE crisis in the Edo State Practicing Butchers Association, yesterday, degenerated to shooting between rival factions of the association with the President of National Butchers Association, Chief Osamede Adun calling on the state Commissioner of Police and the government to invite the parties before things get out of hand.

Rival groups have accused each other of being sponsored by politicians pointing accusing fingers at officials of the state government including Governor Godwin Obaseki, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last governorship election in the state, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the immediate past National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and Adun of funding the rival groups.

Narrating how the shooting occurred, Mr. Sunny Omokaro, a private abattoir operator who claimed to be a member of Edo State Vigilante, said he was returning from work when he saw some young men sent by Akhere Odigie, Chairman of the Practicing Butchers Association alleged to be in the good books of the government to invade his abattoir amid shooting into the air.

He said they were all invited to the New Benin Police Station and that while the others were released, he was still being held by the police.

Reacting to the development, Adun who decried his name being dragged into the crisis expressed shock over the development, saying “For the past five to six years I have not been part of them and whether they have such a union in Benin here, we don’t know because I am the National President of the National Butchers Union of Nigeria and we have been in existence for over 50 years. I have stayed clear of union matters concerning Edo State.

“I have called the Commissioner of Police to invite all of us, whether they even know me by my face.

“I have slaughter houses here in Benin, they said we should not kill cows and I told my people to comply. I told my people to ensure compliance since they say they are now Practicing Butchers which our union doesn’t know.

“They mentioned some names of politicians like the governor, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole but I have resigned from politics for over a year now, I don’t play politics again no politician comes to my house except a businessman like me, I have stayed out of politics. They know what they are fighting over.”

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