Oyo state Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, has vowed that all the culprits that burned and damaged vehicles in a police station located inside Bodija market, Ibadan, Oyo State, would be arrested, prosecuted and made to pay for the damages.
The governor made the vow while addressing market leaders, members of the state executive council, traders, and security operatives, during a visit to the Bodija market on Friday.
Chaos erupted at the market when members of the state chapter of National Butchers Association of Nigeria (NUBAN) engaged the police in a shootout, following government directive to move all butchers in the capital city to a central abattoir.
The mayhem left in its trail, four dead persons, five burnt cars, three damaged vehicles and scores of injured traders. The crisis led to sealing off of the market by the government, with immediate effect, to prevent total breakdown of law and order.
Ajimobi who was welcomed to the scene of the incident by the state Commissioner of Police (CP), Abiodun Odude, and the market leaders and chieftains of the butchers association, commended the people of the state for their support to the government over the years.
He said the government had engaged the butchers and other stakeholders in the processes that led to the decision to relocate the abattoirs within the capital city, to a new central location, in Amosun Village, Akinyele local government area.
The governor recounted, that, all the stakeholders had given their nod to the arrangement, particularly the ownership arrangement between the state government, a private company, the 11 LGAs in the capital city and the butchers association, expressing shock at the sudden refusal of some people to comply with an agreement reached after years of engagement.
He warned that he would not allow the state slide back into its gory past when lawlessness and impunity reigned supreme; he urged the market leader to immediately sensitise all the traders, particularly the butchers.
He added that the state has nothing against the butchers just like all other trade association but wanted the butchery activities to be carried out in a modern, hygienic and friendly market.
He said: “We are pleased at the level of compliance with the seal off order of the market. We are shocked that’s some butchers engaged in violent attack on people and even on a police station.
“We will make sure we arrest, prosecute and make them pay for the damages. We will not tolerate them taking us back to past years of brigandage and violence. We are a peaceful state and we will not condone lawlessness.
“In 1972 when the government of the day directed a relocation of the Gege abattoir to the Bodija market abattoir, some people also resisted it. Now we asked them to go to a better facility again, they are resisting. Must they politicise everything?
“For every progressive and positive government policies and decisions, you with always find some disgruntled elements fomenting trouble and playing politics with everything. We will not allow them, we won’t tolerate it. Our government is known for peace and that is what we will uphold.”
Governor Ajimobi who also visited the Amosun abattoir to commend the butchers who complied with the relocation directive, urged them to talk to their colleagues, who are disrupting the peace of the state, warning that his administration will not condone criminality from any quarter, particularly those being used by politicians.