It would be recalled that the MCE for the Bolgatanga Municipality, Rex Asanga early this year was worried about the Bolgatanga Butchers Associations’ defiant refusal to use the automated system for slaughtering ruminants at the Ghc1.2million ultra-modern abattoir at Yorogo, a suburb of Bolgatanga.
He said this when he spoke A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper Show, on May 2, 2022. Mr Asanga intimated that some persons within the ranks of the butchers are deliberating frustrating the Assembly’s attempts at fully operationalizing the facility.
“The butchers have refused to use the machines. After all the efforts we made when we moved there, we realised that some parts of the machine had been taken out. The engineer had to go to Accra and Kumasi to get parts to fit them in and get the machines working”.
“Several times, the engineer has had to go to Kumasi to get the parts and fix it and then another part goes missing. When the machines were ready to work, the butchers said they were not going to use the machines. They said if the Assembly wants, we can go and buy our own animals and come and use the machines but they will not use the machines. They prefer slaughtering the animals on the ground to make it look messy and all that so that people will ask what we are doing,” the exasperated MCE said.
The MCE continued to say “there is a certain determination [not to make the abattoir function]. It is not all the butchers. A certain section of them is doing all those things.”
Things have however taken a turn for the better as the butchers who were relocated to the facility have now taken full advantage of the automated slaughtering system at the abattoir.
Mr. Asanga said this when he spoke on the same platform today, Wednesday, July 27, 2022.
“The butchers are now using the machines for slaughtering. Eventually, when they tried it, it worked very well for them and now everyone is happy. Many people who have been buying meat from the market have been saying the quality of the meat brought to the market has increased.”
Rather pleased about the recent development, the MCE, Mr Asanga said, “yes, I am pleased. One of these days, you may have to go there to see how these machines work.”
“At a certain stage, we had to use force. We are not in a military regime but sometimes you are left with no option. The butchers; especially the young ones, out of fear, thought that we were going to use the machines and take away their jobs so at a certain stage we had to send the police there to go and say that look, you either use the machines or you do not slaughter animals there at all. So they tried one or two times and realized that it worked well for them.”
“They are excited about it and so now, anytime the lights go off, they will be calling us and asking that we restore the light because they have work to do. I am really excited about it,” he said.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
