The Eid El Adha, popular known as Ileya, is one of the two annual rites in Islam. The first one being Eid-el Mubarak, which is done upon the conclusion of the 30/31 days long fasting. Ileya is a symbolic festival to adherents of Islam because of its spiritual relevance and validation of the account of what transpired between prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) and Ismail in the Quran.
Ileya is celebrated 70 days after the Eid-El Mubarak, which marks the completion of Ramadan fasting. The build-up to Ileya celebration, say three weeks to the D-day, is always typified by immense retail activities between livestock merchants, especially ram and cow traders, because these animals are essential commodities for the Ileya celebration.
But this Ileya might be slightly different from previous in the mode of celebration because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has taken a toll on every imaginable sector.
However, while the spiritual aspect of the celebration might be exceedingly hampered because of the prohibition on large cluster gathering which is one event that makes the festival boisterous, the business side of things might not suffer adversely from the pandemic effects as relevant stakeholders have put in place necessary arrangements to forestall the spread of the disease in markets and other places of business engagement.
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To this end, In preparation for a COVID-19 free Ileya festival, the government at all levels is expediently securing the various communities and markets against the deadly virus.
Epe Local Government is not exempted from this giant stride as all is set to ensure the traditional sales of rams and cows at the famous Oke-Oyinbo market, Epe.
Foodstuff traders are already in their stalls, while the ram sellers from the northern part of the country have been allowed to bring in their live stocks for sales.
The Deputy leader of the Legislative Arm of the council, Hon. Ikujenya Olawale who was among the authorities assigned by the Local Government to among other things ensure proper safety and hygiene-proven ram market assured the entire people of Epe and his environs that there wouldn’t be any cause for fear as all measures have been taken to avert the pandemic while the sales last.
In his words, “Ever since the opening of this market, we’ve never had any case of covid19 as we have all our test kits available and it’s been made mandatory for everyone to follow all the health precautions like washing and sanitizing of hands, wearing of face masks, practicing social distancing, etc. before you can be allowed to trade in the market”
“Everything is in perfect order, and we also had jingles around the town and other neighboring communities on Saturday which was sponsored by the Executive Chairman, Epe Local Government, Hon Adedoyin Adesanya to create the awareness of the terms and conditions involved in trading at the market, and must also comply to the directives of the government”
“All we need from our people and visitors is sundry’s cooperation. We are expecting more people, buyers, traders, etc. from different parts of the country”.
“We’ve got maximum security on the ground. We have the local security outfit (Ibile) and others like the police, soldiers, and many more of them on the ground,” he assured.
One of the buyers simply identified as Mr. Olalekan, who spoke with our correspondent, said that “I was impressed seeing the way Epe Local Government is handling this situation and the safety of the market to curb the spread of the virus. But my worry remains the reason behind the Federal Government’s refusal to open the schools for our children and worshiping places for faithful seeing the way all precautions are maintained in this market to contain the spread of the virus,” he worried.
He further said that “I can recall that during the Ebola outbreak, this same preventive measures (washing of hands with running water, sanitizing and others) were used while the government then did not lock down the schools, let alone the places of worship. Nobody is saying that the virus is not real but, there is mismanagement in this case” he concluded
By Joy Udoh
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