There was confusion at the Olomore Market in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on Wednesday, when tax officials of the Abeokuta North- East Local Council Development Area and residents, who had come to the market to buy ram for the sallah, traded words over N500 slaughter fee.
The officials were observed threatening to seize ram from any buyer, who refused to pay the fee, a development that resulted in a disagreement between the officials and buyers of sallah rams.
A buyer, Muhammad Sanusi, who was engaged in an argument with the tax officials, vowed that he would never pay the fee after purchasing a small ram at the rate of N35,000.
He said, “I won’t pay a dime,take me to wherever you want to take me to. I have exhausted all my money. This is irritating, I have never heard it in my life that I should pay slaughter money for buying a ram for sallah”.
Another buyer, who did not want his name mentioned, described tax leveled on the ram buyers as outrageous, saying that he won’t pay the money.
The situation, therefore, forced the officials and the leadership of the ram dealers in the market to hold an emergency meeting with a view to finding solution to the logjam.
While the head of the tax officials declined to make a comment on the fee, the Director of Veterinary Services in Ogun State, Dr. Dotun Sorunke, who spoke shortly after the meeting, said that the tax being collected was a constitutional fee.
Sorunke, who was at the market with the officials of the state veterinary services to check unhealthy animals at the market, said that the fee was collect by the officials so as to generate revenue for the LCDA.
He said, “They saw it as an opportunity to generate some funds. If they are not doing it before, it doesn’t mean that the law does not exist. Everybody is looking inward to generate more revenue.”
Also speaking on the outcome the meeting, the head of ram dealers at Olomore Market, Alhaji Seni Folarin, said that efforts to persuade the officials to stop collecting the fee prove abortive.
Seni, who kicked against the fee, lamented that collecting the fee from the buyers was another way of inflicting pains on them after buying the ram with huge amount of money .
According to him, “They are collecting N500 from buyers, who had bought a ram at higher price and they are saying it is money for slaughtering the ram.”
But a ram dealer at the Market, Mrs. Kehinde Shodunke, expressed grievances, lamenting that the fee would stop buyers from buying ram at the market.
She said, “We can’t tolerate them collecting N500 from the buyers over a ram. We want to stop the fee because they are not collecting the fee at Itoko and Kuto markets, but only at Olomore and Sabo markets, and if we don’t put an end to this, people will not come to Olomore market to buy ram for sallah again.”
