It was a free for all at the weekend at Idi-Araba market in Mushin when armed butchers and street urchins otherwise called “Area Boys” descended on officials of the Lagos State Task Force on Environment and Special Offences Unit.
The task force officials, with the enforcement team of the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, had stormed the illegal abattoir and slaughter slab at Oshodi and Idi-Araba to dislodge the operators.
It was learnt that the enforcement team had sealed an illegal abattoir and slabs at Oshodi and Idi-Araba when the rampaging miscreants and butchers came out en masse and started throwing dangerous weapons such as machetes, knives, stones and broken bottles from different directions.
In the ensuing melee, the leader of the task force team, Supol Wilson Alaba and the driver, Mr. Adekunle Victor, were attacked with machetes. Victor was abducted but later rescued in a pool of blood.
When found, he had cuts in his head and left leg. Government had directed the task force to clamp down on illegal abattoirs and slabs because they were not operating in line with the statutory standard as contained in the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Laws.
