A 30-year-old trader has been arrested by the police in Ogun state for naming his pet dog ‘Buhari.’
The trader, Joe Fortemose Chinakwe, of No 10, Omikunle Street, Sango-Ota, Ogun State, was reportedly arrested last weekend, after one of his neighbours of Northern extraction complained bitterly that he named his dog after his father, Alhaji Buhari.
Vanguard learned that the complainant reported the case at Sango Police Station, last Saturday, after which the trader was arrested and detained.
However, it was gathered that efforts by the police to recover the dog, which they intended using as evidence failed following a clever move by the suspect.
The trader, said to be trading in female wears at a popular market in Sango, allegedly directed his friends secretly to kill the dog and possibly eat the meat in order to avoid being implicated. It was gathered that consistent 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.
The case, however, took a different dimension two days later when Chinakwe’s relatives went to Sango police station to further plead for his bail only to be informed that the case file and the suspect have been transferred to Ogun State Police Command headquarters at Eleweran.
A relation to the suspect, who simply identified himself as Chiedozie, told Vanguard that his brother was being persecuted for no just cause and expressed fears that he may either be poisoned inside police cell or thrown into jail.
Chiedozie said: “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.”
Police sources, however, told Vanguard that the actions of the suspect “were very provocative.”
The source said: “he not only named the dog Buhari but boldly wrote it on the body of both sides of the dog and was seen parading the neighbourhood dominated by Northerners with it”
When contacted around 8pm yesterday, the acting Police spokesman in Ogun State, Abimbola Oyeyemi, ASP, said he was still trying to get the Divisional Police Officer in-charge of Sango for details.