FADAMA dealers protest floods at Mararaba market

By Godwin Tyonongu

Indications have emerged that if the government authorities were not ready to find a lasting solution to the perennial floods at the Mararaba KAPDA Market, the FADAMA chickens Dealers occupying the place would be forced to vacate.
This indication became rife recently as the dealers led by their chairman, Alhaji Muhammed Ibrahim Katyen, protested what they termed, negligence of the government authorities over their plight, noting that the market belonged to KAPDA and they were taking revenue from them.

He said: “If the government is not ready to come to our aid over this problem of flood, we are bound to quit the place. The flood used to disrupt our business each time it rains heavily, our cages used to soak with water, killing hundreds of birds at night before day breaks; they made a mistake by removing the bridge that was here and replacing it with culverts.

“Even the FADAMA project, we were enticed to register with the aim of getting financial assistance from the project but since then, nothing has been heard from the concerned authorities. An associations made up of 500 members who are knowledgeable in the poultry business do not have the financial muscles to carry on.”
Katyen said the association was initially registered in 1988, but the registration was reviewed in 2006 during the bird flu crisis in the country.
He said it was because of the bird flu attack that prompted them to register the body in order get government’s attention.