A 30-year-old trader named Fortemose Chinakwe, who lives in Ogun State has been arrested by security operatives just because he named his pet dog Buhari. The arrest came after his neighbour who is from the Northern part of Nigeria got that the dog was named after his father, Alhaji Buhari.
The case was then reported to the Police Station in Sango,
last weekend, thereafter the police left their criminals they were supposed to
go after, and went to arrest the young man for such a flimsy bitterness
expressed by the complainant.
Consequently, all the efforts of the police to get the dog
apprehended as an evidence were futile, as according to sources, the suspect
supposedly told some of his acquaintances to secretly kill and may be eat it,
in order to avert any implication.
However, appeals by his friends and relations for the police
to grant him bail failed as the complainant and his kinsmen reportedly
threatened to kill the trader if he was released on bail.
Family members of the suspect who made attempt to get the
man on bail were told that the suspect had been transferred to Ogun State
Police Command Headquarters located at Eleweran.
Chiedozie who is relative to the suspect narrates how his
brother was being treated in such an unjust manner: “Chinakwe is a lover of
dogs and he names them after things that tickle him. He bought this dog a year
ago and named it Buhari.
“Unfortunately, some Northerners, who dominate the vicinity
where he resides misconstrued his intention and connived to take him up. The
complainant then claimed it was derogatory because his father answers Buhari.”
Acting Police spokesman in Ogun State, Abimbola Oyeyemi,
ASP, has confirmed the incident.
According to the ASP: “The man bought a dog and inscribed
Buhari on both sides of its body. One Mallam lodged a complaint and when our
men got there, we found out that it was true.
“You know such thing can cause serious breach of the peace
and ethnic or religious unrest. We are charging him to court for conduct likely
to cause a breach of peace.
“He was arrested last Saturday and we are taking him to
court later today (Tuesday) or tomorrow morning (today). You know an average
Northerner will feel bad over such a thing. It can cause serious ethnic crisis
or religious confrontation because when you are relegating such a name to a
certain person, you are indirectly insulting him.”
On the whereabouts of the dog, the police spokesman said:
“The dog cannot follow anybody except the owner. We will use him as our
evidence because he did not deny it.”
The question one may ask is, why will the Nigerian Police
stoop so low to give such a sentimental and trivial complaint such a treatment
while the criminals they are supposed to go after smiles home and walk freely
on the streets daily even when they know some of them?
The world over, people name their pets with human names and
nobody uses any security agency to intimidate anyone, provided your pet does
not breach into another’s property.
Nigerian Police, you have a long way to go.
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