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Bolga butchers down tools over location of new abattoir

Butchers operating in the Bolgatanga Municipality of the Upper East Region have embarked on an indefinite strike following the Municipal Assembly’s decision to relocate them to a new abattoir at Yorogo.

According to the butchers, the new abattoir was not only far from the town, but also that they were never consulted.

The old abattoir employs about 300 butchers and salesmen serving a population of over one million and remains the only abattoir that supplies meat to households, food vendors and hotels in the municipality and its environs.

The Bolgatanga Municipal took the decision to relocate the butchers to the newly constructed abattoir it has built at Yorogo, a suburb of Bolgatanga, at the cost of GH¢1.2 million.

Speaking to the Ghanaian Times here in an interview on Wednesday, the Chief Butcher, Mr Tindanzor Kologdor, explained that apart from the fact that the Local Authority did not inform them, the newly constructed abattoir was very far from the Municipality.

He indicated that one of the major problems that is not making them to comply by the Assembly’s decision to move to the new abattoir was that the facility could contain only 20 butchers but currently the butchers are about 300.

“The assembly is forcing us to move to Yorogo, but the youth here are raising concerns about the distance which is far and saying that it will lead to job losses. We are about 300, but the new abattoir can only take 20, that is why the youth are resisting the relocation,” Tindanzor Kologdor stressed.

The Chief Butcher explained that the assembly had earlier on served them a letter to relocate to the new abattoir but when they reported to work on Tuesday, the assembly had locked up the abattoir.

While the Chief Butcher stressed that the group would continue the strike until the assembly unlocks the old abattoir for them, another butcher, Ibrahim Osman, stated that, “We are on strike because the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly in a letter directed that we should relocate to the new abattoir in Yorogo on January 18, 2022. So, we were discussing the letter when we received a call for a meeting at the assembly, but we couldn’t make it.”

He said they were planning to see how they could resolve the issue with the Assembly, but that when they came to work on January 18, 2022, the assembly had locked the abattoir

Speaking to the Municipal Chief Executive for Bolgatanga, Mr Rex Asanga, he explained that the old abattoir was locked after several attempts had been made to relocate the butchers peacefully proved futile.

FROM SAMUEL AKAPULE, BOLGATANGA

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