Alhaji Osman Nuhu Sharabutu, National Chief Imam, on Tuesday observed that the illegal livestock slaughtering houses was negatively affecting the operations of the Ghana Butchers Association and the Accra Abattoir.
He said the unhygienic places for slaughtering cattle and goats sold to unsuspecting public was a major source of worry and therefore called on the Municipal and District Assemblies to enforce their bye-laws.
Alhaji Sharabutu made the call when he inaugurated the Accra Abattoir Mosque, a place of convenience, shower baths and a gas singeing plant at Lashibi, a suburb of Accra at the cost of GH�46,000.
The Accra Abattoir Limited financed the project through an internally generated fund.
He said it was disheartening that meat sellers and all manner of people converged at slaughter houses to transact business under unhygienic conditions.
The National Chief Imam said the assemblies needed to do more to arrest the situation by sensitizing the butchers and the public.
The National Chief Butcher, Alhaji Zakari Sofo, said the members of the Butchers Association on several occasions had complained about the distance and the cost involved in transporting animals to the Accra Abattoir.
He said since the demolition of the Accra Slaughter House members had suggested to the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA) that they were prepared to construct a modern slaughter house at their expense, but this idea was rejected.
Alhaji Sofo also expressed worry about the mode of transporting meat from the slaughter houses to the market centres and admitted that it was not the best as the vehicle transporting the meat conveyed people at the same time.
He said a delegation from the ten regions met with the Local Government and Rural Development Ministry, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the AMA and the Vice President last year to request for two meat vans to ease their transportation burden and the construction of a new slaughter house, but they were all turn down.
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