Butchers in the Bolgatanga Municipality and its environs have refused to use an ultra-modern abattoir, well-furnished and commissioned in 2018, to slaughter and dress animals for sale.

The facility, valued at GH¢1.2 million, was constructed to enhance the quality and hygienic condition under which meat was processed and sold in the market.

The facility, built at Yorogo, a suburb of Bolgatanga, has a bio-digester for the conversion of waste material into biogas, the right equipment for slaughtering and processing of the animals, offices, a pavilion and washrooms for the staff and workers and a kraal to house the animals until they were examined by a veterinary officers before slaughtering.

On a visit to the abattoir, where she met the butchers, Madam Tangoba Abayage, the Upper East Regional Minister, called on them to use the new abattoir as it was well designed and equipped to maintain the wholesomeness of the meat and ensure that consumers’ health was not put at risk.

The facility was expected to serve as a new ground for butchers in the Bolgatanga Municipality and other nearby districts in the region for slaughtering and processing animals before taking the meat to the market for sale, thus relieving the butchers of the old dilapidated abattoir located in the Bolgatanga township.

The butchers indicated that the place was far from the market and there was huge cost involved in using the place to slaughter and process meat.

They also accused the Assembly of deliberately relocating the construction site and deviating from what was originally agreed by both the Municipal Assembly and the butchers.

Timothy Timbil, the Secretary of the Bolgatanga Butchers Association, revealed that in 2016, officials from the World Bank conducted a visibility study to find out where the abattoir could be constructed to yield the needed results.

“It was agreed by both the Assembly and us, the Butchers, that the new abattoir should either be constructed at where we are currently operating or it should be taken to the defunct meat factory at Zuarungu in the Bolgatanga East District, but the Assembly changed the location to Yorogo without telling us anything”.

He said though the leadership of the association had spoken to the butchers to go to the place, the butchers particularly the youth were not willing to move to the new site as transportation and processing cost involved were high.