Traders Selling Poisonous Ponmo Roasted With Tyres, Engine Oil To Nigerians

• Lagos traders selling poisonous Ponmo to unsuspecting Nigerians

EKO HOT BLOG reports that some traders in Lagos use unhygienic and unhealthy materials in the process of roasting Cowhide (ponmo), which makes it a death trap for unsuspecting Nigerians who patronise these traders.

Cowhide popularly known as Ponmo or Awo, in Nigeria is a cheap protein source. Although there are arguments that this part of meat has little or no nutritional value, it is very popular in Nigeria, especially among the poor.

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Ponmo, is often the cheapest and the most available protein source in Canteens and Bukas in Nigeria, because meat and fish sell for higher prices.

Mrs Efe Okoro, who runs a Buka in the Iba area of the state, says ponmo is the favourite meat bought by her customers.

Its been revealed that processors of ponmo in Lagos markets use tyres, plastics and disused engine oil thereby exposing millions of Nigerians who consume cowhide to toxic chemicals reportedly capable of causing serious health conditions like cancer and sudden deaths.

It was a frightening and haunting sight how the piles of ponmo, a very popular meat savored by millions of Nigerians, sat on a local open oven.

Beneath the ponmo, a dark, smoky fire fuelled with pieces of tyre and plastic burnt the cowhide slowly.

A small group of chattering men stood by the fire dousing the ponmo, intermittently, with a blackish oil. The fire and smoke from the burning plastic, tyre and oil rose into the sky, blackening the early morning air and filling nostrils with soot.

“I roast cowhides very fast, just buy it and give it to me, I don’t waste time,” one of the men, a thickset man wearing a short and blue armless T-shirt said. Other men stood around him keeping a watchful eye on the roasting ponmo.

These men are ponmo processors. They were preparing the ponmo for the hordes of traders that contracted them to do the illicit trade. These traders would soon hit the markets with the poisonous cow skin for onward delivery to the food sellers, traders and families who come to the market daily to buy ‘fresh’ ponmo.

Most of the unsuspecting buyers and eaters of ponmo do not know that their ponmo is burnt with dangerous items that have been linked to cancer and other deadly health conditions. They simply buy, take their pieces home and cook them without knowing that their ‘delicious’ cowhide is seasoned with a deadly cocktail of carcinogenic substances.

However, if the unsuspecting buyers do not know that the cow skins that they buy and consume are agents of cancer and death, the processors and traders are aware that they are involved in a deadly trade.

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