Butchers groups resists imposition of chief butcher on them

Kumasi, Sept 17, GNA-The leadership of butchers groups who are actively involved in the meat industry in Kumasi say they will resist any attempt to impose anybody as a chief butcher on them.

They will, however, readily co-operate if the four registered butcher associations operating in the metropolis were given the free hand in collaboration with other stakeholders in the meat industry to decide who should be the chief butcher in Kumasi.

A statement issued in Kumasi on Friday and signed by three patrons of the butchers associations, Mr Sule Jibril, Alhaji Tanko Alhassan and Mr Gariba Darga, said the stand taken by the Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC) that no person from any other ethnic group except the Hausa community would be the chief butcher as most unfortunate.

The statement disagreed with the stand of the REGSEC and said the butchers groups will pursue the arbitrary imposition of a chief butcher on them to its logical conclusion until justice was achieved.

It said the stand of the REGSEC was an affront to social and economic justice because the majority of butchers in Kumasi were Frafras, Dagombas, Grushies and Gaos.

The statement pointed out that the work of the butchers was not based on tribalism and as such any accredited butcher qualifies to be elected as the chief butcher of Kumasi if only he was accepted by the majority of the butchers in Kumasi and also won the trust of butchers operating at the Kumasi Abattoir.

The butchers said they wanted peace, fairness and justice to prevail for a solution to be found to the problem but that their stand on the issue was very clear and cautioned that the situation could be explosive if it was not properly handled.