The Federal Capital Territory Administration has there is no going back on its plans to clampdown on unregistered veterinary service centres within the territory.
According to the Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, the clampdown has become necessary in order to check the activities of quacks that have variously contributed to jeopardizng the development of livestock sector.
Recall that The Abuja Inquirer had in July, reported that the FCTA had banned the public display of veterinary drugs in open markets across the nation’s capital as part of measures to check the activities of quacks and proliferation of unregistered veterinary facilities in the territory.
The agrc secretariat said the move has become necessary due to the continuous violation of prescribed safe bio-security measures in illegal veterinary clinics.
The Mandate Secretary, FCT Agriculture and Rural Development Secretariat, Mallam Abubakar Ibrahim, last week, disclosed that the 13-man committee constituted to review all Veterinary practice in Abuja, has completed its work.
Ibrahim, at a media briefing revealed that the enforcement team will, from next week, be deployed to shut down all unregistered veterinary facilities.
While he did not disclose the requirements for the registration of Veterinary facilities, he however stated that there are sacrosanct regulatory guidelines that have to be complied with by all practitioners.
He added, “the Committee is set to begin enforcement on 15th December, 2022 and it is mandated to close down facilities that are unregistered and fail to comply with regulatory guidelines.”
The secretary also revealed the FCTA spent N62 million on provision of fishery inputs across the Six Area Councils in the last one year.
He said the amount was used in the purchase of assorted fishery inputs including cold storage facilities, culture tanks, fish seeds and fish which was distributed to FCT fisher folks at 50 per cent subsidy, recently.
According to him, it has become imperative that alternative fish species be developed to diversify and boost fish production and prevent what may later turn to monotony.
Ibrahim revealed that, “In our bid to further bridge the yawning gap between fish demand and supply, we have trained well over 2,600 fish farmers and cooperative groups in the use of locally available resources for feed production.
“We have made provision for assorted fishery inputs ranging from cold storage facilities, culture tanks, fish seeds and feeds worth about N62 million naira. The items were distributed to them recently”
