Reports from Cross River State indicate that due to high costs and unavailability of cow and goat meats which most people in the state particularly relish in their delicacies, snake, donkeys and horse meats are being sold in some markets in Calabar and other bigger towns in the state.
This allegation was made during an Efik language phone-in programme on a private radio, FAD FM.
A woman resident who gave her name as Mary Okoko alleged that due to the high costs of cows and goats, some mischievous traders now sell donkey and snake meats to unsuspecting buyers.
She said most people in the state and other Niger Delta States do not eat snakes let alone donkeys or horses.
The callers said they no longer eat quality or good portions of meat as they used to do before now as a result.
In the 1-hour radio phone-in programme, all callers spoke angrily over their inability to afford the costs of cow or goat meats in local markets.
Some alleged that middlemen and union leaders were the major reasons why the costs of cows, in particular, have gone very high.
One Peter Eteng from Odukpani LGA said cow dealers from the northern states have complained that they spend, at least, N500,000 as charges and bribes at checkpoints from the northern states through many other illegal checkpoints in the state before they can offload in local markets and sell to cow dealers in the state.
“High costs of fuel and importantly extortions and taxes at the innumerable checkpoints within Cross River State have added to the reasons why prices of cows have gone up astronomically in the last few years.
“You cannot expect these cow merchants to sell at a loss. Likewise, you will not expect local dealers after buying at huge costs from the merchants, to sell at reduced prices.
“Our state government should intervene by banning too many checkpoints in many parts of the state, especially those ones which are illegal.”
They also lamented that prices of species of goats have also gone up, depriving them of other sources of protein as a result.
