Last Thursday, the Kogi government asked residents to shun cow meat after Fulani herders distributed 20 poisoned cows to markets for sale.

Fulani herders quickly slaughtered some and sent them to markets in Lokoja, Osara and some other parts of the town.

Butchers who spoke to journalists in Lokoja said they were losing huge sums of money because of low patronage.

“I don’t make up to 30 per cent of what I used to make in a day these days. This is because people are afraid to die,” Umar Banana, at Lokogoma Market, Lokoja, lamented.

Chairman, Butchers Association at the market, Yahaya Mohammed, described the situation as “very painful and unfortunate’’ given butchers’ innocence in the poisoned cows saga.

“Before this ugly incident happened, we used to slaughter between 20 cows and 30 cows daily here in Lokogoma Market, but now it is only two cows or one cow per day,’’ he said.

At the new International Market, Lokoja, a butcher, Ibrahim Abdullahi, said between 80 cows and 100 cows were slaughtered across Ganaja, Barracks, Lokogoma, Zango and International Markets, on a daily basis.

“Unfortunately now, we hardly slaughter up to 20 cows put together for the whole of these markets due to low patronage, which has badly crumbled meat business in the state.

“We are appealing to the public to trust us as regards the poisoned cows. As people who fear God, we won’t allow them to eat any meat that is not healthy or that will harm them,” Mr Abdullahi stressed.