NSCDC parades dead meat syndicate in Gombe
No fewer than eight persons have been paraded by the Commandant of Nigeria Civil Defence Corps, Gombe State Command, Muhammad Bello, for selling dead cow meat to unsuspecting residents.
Bello said the eight-member syndicate comprise a woman, Mary Paul, from Delta State, and seven males specialised in buying and selling dead meat after roasting to customers.
Our correspondent gathered that Paul roasts the meat together with bush meat before taking it to the market where her poll of customers readily buy from her boys.
Represented by Public Relations Officer SC Saad Buhari, the Commandant said the syndicate had done the business in the past 2 years, adding that the suspects carried out their business without minding the medical implications.
According to him, the essence of the parade was to reduce the negative implications of consuming such meat in the state, adding that their ranges from other parts of Nigeria.
He said, “They specialise in selling dead meat, most especially that of a cow. They have been doing this in the past two years before luck ran out on them through actionable intelligence. The syndicate was led by a lady known as Mary Paul, of Mammy market Gombe. She processes and sells to members of the public who are unaware of the meat they are buying.”
On her part, Paul who pleaded for pardon said she buys full dead cow between N30,000 to N40,000, adding that has been in the business for more two years after the demise of her husband.
Narrating her ordeal 40-year-old mother of four said she was alerted about a cow that fell into the well, before men of the Corps arrested her, “I’m from Delta State, I have been in Gombe in the last two years. I was told that a cow fell inside hole and we went to buy. I just to manage the business together with roasting of bush meat. I used to buy meat. The owner of this recent one told me about the death of the animal before we went to get it,” she added.
When asked if she knows about the health implication of consuming dead meat, Paul said, “No, forgive me, but me I eat it. No one comes to my place to buy, I usually roast it, join it with bush meat and take it to the market for sale.”
