Punch
DEJI LAMBO investigates roasting of cow skin, popularly known as ponmo by processors in Lagos markets, who 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, haunting sight. Piles of ponmo, a very popular meat savoured 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.
Starting from July, our reporter went around the major ponmo markets and slaughterhouses in Lagos, observing ponmo processing, interviewing unsuspecting ponmo sellers and processors and gathering overwhelming evidence about the sneaky, evil trade that unscrupulous ponmo processors carry out at the back of expansive slaughterhouses in the state, far away from prying eyes.
After paying preliminary visits and observing all that these ponmo processors did to keep their business secret, our correspondent decided to disguise as a university student researcher to gain access to their operational base where ponmo is processed with plastic, tyres and a black oil substance that some people say was used engine oil.
Our correspondent disguised as a student when visited several abattoirs in the Ikorodu Local Government Area; Agege Local Government Area; Barracks and Ijanikin abattoirs in the Ojo Local Government Area; private ponmo processing factories on a wetland in the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education and the Iba Local Council Development Area.
Cheap protein
Ponmo or Awo, as it is commonly known in all parts of Nigeria is a cheap protein source sourced from cowhide. 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.
At most canteens in Nigeria, or Bukas as they are popularly called, ponmo is often the cheapest and the most available protein source. Other meat and fish types 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.
Mrs Okoro speaking with our correspondent
“My customers like ponmo more than meat,” she said, while she was busy attending to customers, including our correspondent, who were buying rice, beans, noodles and ponmo.
“I don’t buy more ponmo than meat because I have to wash ponmo, meat is easier to wash, but it normally finishes before meat.”
Mike Adeyemi, an electrician in Ikorodu, says he buys ponmo because it is affordable for his family.
“Ponmo is very affordable and cheap. I have a family of eight and just N300 ponmo is enough to cook soup to feed my family. It is cheaper than meat and fish.
“Although people do say poverty is what will make you think eating ponmo is OK, but I don’t mind since it is what I can afford to satisfy my family. I also eat red meat,” he said.
Ope Falade, a homemaker, who cooks ponmo for her family, said she liked to buy ponmo because it was cheap and her family enjoyed it.
“My children like ponmo a lot, and it is very cheap. I buy meat and fish, but our meals are not complete without ponmo,” the mother of three said.
However, it won’t be entirely correct to describe ponmo as the meat of the poor. Healthy living is gaining popularity and awareness in Nigeria. As a result, many people who are worried about the probable health complications associated with the consumption of red meat, have resorted to ponmo as a reliable alternative.
With a growing population of over 213 million Nigerians, there exists an almost insatiable demand for ponmo among the populace.
Our investigations show that the huge demand for ponmo is one of the major factors driving the dangerous processing practices in Lagos markets.
During our correspondent’s investigations, he found a few places where ponmo is processed with firewood, which experts say is also a dangerous contaminant but less dangerous than plastic, engine oil and tyres.
Disused tyres are a common sight in Lagos. People simply throw them away on the streets or deposit them at vulcanizer shops when they are no longer useful. Used engine oil is mostly emptied into streets or gutters when cars are ‘serviced’ and their oil is changed.
As for plastic, it is very common in waste dumps and plastic manufacturing or recycling factories. All of these provide opportunities for unscrupulous ponmo processors and sellers seeking to cut corners for gain.
Ponmo: The making
Ponmo is usually produced in public slaughterhouses and other private abattoirs across the country. In Lagos, the slaughterhouses are regulated and said to be regularly inspected by government agencies and officials.
There are two types of ponmo: white and brown, and their production processes differ.
A ponmo processor in a slaughterhouse around Ebute, Ikorodu, Sherifat Lawal, described the process to our correspondent. Ponmo, according to her, is processed in two ways: through boiling and roasting. She added that brown ponmo is prepared by roasting cowhide, white ponmo is processed by boiling.
She said, “The making of the white ponmo is done by using a sharp object to scrape the hair on the cowhide. Afterwards, we will put the cowhide inside a pot, add water and boil it to make it soft. That is white ponmo.
“The brown ponmo is achieved through roasting with fire. We set firewood on fire and place a net-like iron on the lit firewood. Without scraping the hair on the cow’s skin, we place it on the iron and roast it for about 30 minutes to remove the hair.
“Afterwards, we then boil it for some minutes and soak in a pot of water for about 13 hours to remove all the germs. We do the soaking overnight. In the morning, we will remove it, use a sponge to wash it with only water and supply it to our customers, who will cut it into smaller pieces for consumption after cooking.”
Our correspondent observed these stages of processing ponmo in all the slaughterhouses that he visited.
Armed with prior information, however, he felt there was more than meets the eye in Lawal’s narrative of how brown ponmo is made.
While walking around the market, our correspondent noticed that most of the brown ponmo processing spots in the markets did not have firewood stacked near the open ovens.
Rather than firewood, our correspondent sighted scrap tyres, pieces of plastic, old shoes and cans of oil — that were said to be engine oil, a claim which the reporter could not confirm. In Lagos markets, the ground plastic pieces are known as Jamanca.
Some of the markets where our correspondent observed the use of these dangerous fuel sources for processing ponmo were Agege, Barracks, Ijanikin abattoirs, including the private ponmo processing factories in the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED) and Iba LCDA, among others.
To ensure that their operations were kept from prying eyes, most of the ponmo processors prevented any form of pictures or video recordings and were quick to question strangers or anyone seen moving aimlessly around the premises.
We roast ponmo with tyres – processor
When this reporter visited the private ponmo processing facility at Check Point Bus Stop around the AOCOED, the reporter observed a ponmo processor, Anu Sunday, processing cowhide into brown ponmo. She used scrap tyres to fuel the fire roasting the raw cowhide.
Intermittently, Sunday was also seen using a bowl to scoop a black watery oily substance from a bucket and pouring the same on the burning tyre roasting the cowhide.
The expectant mother, who was employed by the owner of the processing facility, Bose Ajibade, aka Iya Ibeji, used no fewer than 10 tyres to roast five complete cowhides.
Asked why she refused to wear a nose mask to prevent inhalation of the heavy smoke emitting from the open oven, Sunday said, “I am used to burning it without covering my nose. If there is not much work, I do get paid N1,500, but I get more if the work is plenty. I have roasted about five complete cow skins with tyres today.”
As Anu finished roasting each piece of cowhide, a ponmo trader, who gave her name as Florence picked up the fresh brown ponmo, cut it into pieces and transferred them to her daughter, Kehinde, who was seen splitting spoilt shoes as fuel for another fire. The shoes include leather shoes, plastic shoes and rubber shoes.
‘We use shoes to roast ponmo for profit’
Our correspondent asked Kehinde, dressed in a red gown, why she reroasted the ponmo after the initial roasting with tyres?
“What we are looking for is our gain. If we do not remove the hair, we will have to cut those parts away and it means we are cutting away our gain. So, we have to re-roast it with shoes to remove the hair completely.
“If you use shoes to roast the cow skin from the beginning, it won’t roast properly because the fire is not heavy and that is why they use tyres to start the roasting of the cowhides.
“They use tyres to roast about 100 completely flayed cow skins daily here and we do pay N1,000 per cow skin. They (Sunday and her boss) only help us and other customers to use tyres to roast but we are the ones that re-roast the roasted ponmo using shoes.
“The ones she (Sunday) roasted with tyres still have hair on them; I am using spoilt shoes to roast it again to remove the hair completely and to make the ponmo neat to attract patronage in the market,” the graduate said.
When Kehinde was done, the reporter purchased two pieces of ponmo.
