Gory Federal Roads Responsible For Meat Scarcity, Says Rivers Vendors

Edith CHUKU

Meat vendors in Rivers State have described the dilapidated state of some federal roads from the North leading to the South and the state in particular, as a major threat to cow dealers.

They said the bad federal roads within and between the states were discouraging and responsible for the scarcity and high cost of meat.

The sellers stated this when TNN visited the Trailer Park slaughter in the state and Tank market, on Wednesday.

Former chairman of Wazobia slaughter, Mr. Ben Chukwu, who spoke with our correspondent explained that “when the road was good, sometimes it takes cow dealers two, three days to transport cow from North to this place but now, sometimes it takes them three weeks.”

Chukwu noted that other challenges faced by the dealers following the bad road networks was that, “sometimes before they get to Rivers State they will lose many cow on the road, some will die, so because of those things the dealers are dodging to bring cows to Rivers State.”

He stressed that regardless of the high cost of transportation, meat would be surplus if there were good road networks.

The vendor further urged the president Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s led government to give urgent attention to the rehabilitation of federal roads for easy transportation.

Another dealer at the Eneka flyover market, who gave his name simply as Mr. Hassan said, “it’s because of the transportation, according to the people bringing the cow, they said that the transportation is very high and all the federal roads that lead to Rivers State is very bad.

“Federal government should fix federal roads, all the federal roads are very bad, they should fix it so that the road will be motorable, even if fuel is very expensive, when the road is okay, bringing meat down here will not be a challenge, accessible road is very important to dealers.”