Alhaji Musa Sokoto, who spoke on behalf of the ram sellers, said the traders were alarmed at the government's action as the place they ply their trade is a wasteland on the bye-pass around the National Theatre.
The ram sellers said they sought the permission of the Oloto of Otto, Oba Ganiyu Okeyide Odesanya, before selling their rams there.
Sokoto said the traders do not constitute any nuisance as claimed by the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment.
"I feel we are been maltreated because we are northerners. This is Sallah period; people are bringing in rams to sell in Lagos. Yorubas are bringing rams too but I don't think Lagos State officers are maltreating them like us," he said.
Another trader, Alhaji Abubakar Saidu, who lost two rams to the KAI officials, said he would leave them to the will of Allah.
"I leave them to God. We were told the rams died while they were trying to bring them down from the van. I feel it is the will of Allah, I leave them to Him".
Musa said the Seriki of Ijora, Alhaji Mustapha, helped them to secure the release of the rams, adding that the incident would not affect the prices of ram in the market.
"What we want is peace of mind to sell our rams in these few weeks and return to our farms in the north," he said.
A top official of KAI, who spoke with P.M.NEWS under anonymity, said: "the traders were supposed to be issued an abatement notice and if they were found to be constituting nuisance, the abatement notice serves as a warming to them to vacate or clean up their surroundings. The officials are not supposed to take money for the release of the rams. Anything short of that is extortion and not official," he said.
When contacted, the Oloto of Otto said he was just being informed about the development and would make necessary contacts to know what actually happened.
"It might be due to security or environmental reasons, government doesn't just descend on innocent traders. I would find out and get back to you," he said.
The ram sellers claimed that 15 of the seized rams were killed by the officials, adding that they were able to retrieve only 135 rams after paying N120,000 at the cost of N800 per ram.
Source: PM News
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