Officials of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, AEPB, are on the trail of a stash of rotten chicken and beef smuggled out of a cold room at Garki International market.
The board, acting on tip-off, had stormed the market to confiscate the poisonous item but met an empty cold room after the rotten meat were hastily moved to unknown destination.
Head of the Monitoring and Enforcement unit of AEPB, Kaka Bello, who led security personnel and other officials to the scene said, the board had received reports from the market management and the public complaints commission of a container load of bad meat being sold to residents.
He said though the suspicious meat were no longer in the market when his men visited, two persons in charge of the cold room were arrested for their alleged involvement in the sale of rotten chicken to buyers.
Kaka said, “We are here base on reports we received from the market management and the public complaints commission. We have been going round to talk about environmental issues generally, but today we are here to talk about environmental health issues.
“The board received an information of stock pilled chicken and meat which has already decayed and unfortunately those operating the cold room are selling them to the public which is not good for human consumption, but before we came in here, the meat has been evacuated, according to the people we saw operating the cold room.
“So, we have taken the two persons operating the cold room into custody for more findings to make sure that the rotten meat is not transported to another place for sale. According to them, we want to know where it has been evacuated to, if they destroy it we want to see where it was done. We want to be sure that is not transported to other markets for sale.
“This is for the public to know that such act is not allowed in the Federal Capital Territory, basically we know that they have been selling these things before the market management and Public Complaints commission get to know about it and alerted us.
“We are going to charge them to court after necessary investigations are concluded, and they will pay for their sins. People cannot come to market to buy what to eat for their good health, and buy rotten items. This is unacceptable” he said.
Bello said the board would come down hard on any one found selling or involved in unwholesome meat activities.
