slaughtering.

Malam Yari, who is the director of agriculture, Kafur Local Government of Katsina State, said the review would ensure the safety of meat consumed by Nigerians.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria last week in Kafur, that the provisions of the current law on animal protection would not safeguard the health of animals and mode of their slaughter.

He expressed concern that quacks have infiltrated veterinary practice, adding that this had created some difficulties for professionals handling cases of animal diseases until such cases had become fatal.

"Some animal rearers are now doctors to their animals, if their animals are sick they obtain vaccines at the open markets and administer them on the animals," he said.

Yari also cautioned against politicising the vaccination of animals, saying that some contractors who have no knowledge of animal diseases were involved in the exercise. The director urged animal rearers in the area not to patronise quack doctors, adding that they should utilise the opportunity offered by qualified staff of veterinary clinics to treat their animals.

Prices of food items drop in Jalingo

The prices of some food
items in three major markets in Jalingo, Taraba State, have reduced due to the arrival of some new crops, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

A market survey conducted by NAN on Tuesday in Jalingo, revealed that 100kg bag of maize which, some few weeks ago, cost N6,800 now sell for N5,200.

The price of Sorghum which was being sold for N6,000 per 100kg bag now costN4,800, while the price of a 100kg of Guinea-corn that usually sold for N5,500 was now being sold for N4,500.

The survey also showed that the price of beans which formerly sold for N12,000 for 100kg bag now cost N10,000.

Similarly, the price of local rice has dropped to N10, 800 from the former N12,000 for a 100kg bag. Malam Aminu Musa, state chairman, market traders association, attributed the decrease in prices to the arrival of new farm produce and heavy rainfall recorded in the state.

He faulted the sale of excess grains by government, describing it as "counter productive."

He said that the commodity did not get to the ordinary people, and urged the government to sell grains directly to the people to avoid diversion by government officials.