Goat meat sellers, Bishop Okoye Line at Mile 3 Market clashed with hoodlums suspected to be cultists last week Thursday due to their refusal to pay ‘matching ground’ fee.
A source at the market who did not want his name in print told our reporter that the hoodlums who were in the habit of collecting ‘matching ground’ levy of 300 naira from each goat meat seller on daily basis came last Thursday and told the traders that the ‘matching fee’ was increased to 500 naira per individual.
We gathered that the meat sellers refused to pay ‘the matching ground’ levy of 500 naira on the grounds that they were not making much gain.
Our source revealed that the hoodlums seized the goat meat of the traders after out numbering them and a trader was stabbed in the process.
We learned that the timely intervention of officers from Nkpolu Divisional Police Headquarters, Mile 3 Diobu who arrived the scene made the hoodlums to abandon some of the meat they had seized and took to their heels.
It would be recalled that the Rivers State Government has outlawed the collection of ‘matching ground’ levy which is now a criminal offence punishable by law.
In the month of April and May this year, four persons were reported dead in Mile 3 Diobu in a supremacy battle between Deygbam and Iceland cult groups over who would take charge of ‘matching ground’ collection in some street markets in the area.
