The Ogun State Government yesterday alerted residents to the sale of poisonous cattle hides and skin, a local delicacy popularly known as ponmo, in markets across the state.

The State Government alleged that “some unscrupulous businessmen” attempting to exploit the current scarcity of product have resorted to selling industrial hides and skin, already treated with tanning chemicals, to unsuspecting members of the public.

The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Mrs. Ronke Sokefun, who addressed a press conference on the sale of the unhealthy and dangerous ponmo, disclosed that such cattle hides and skin had been treated with tanning chemicals for the production of leather and are thus unfit for human consumption.

Sokefun, however, said the state Ministry of Agriculture and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) had already commenced investigation into the development and had been on the trail of the importers of the unhealthy ponmo.

The commissioner also disclosed that the officials of the ministry had been in ‘strategic liaisons’ with the state Ministry of Health and the Environmental Health Departments of the 20 local government areas to confiscate the unhealthy ‘ponmo’ from all markets in the state.

•Photo shows ponmo on sale at a local market.