Ogun State Police: Trader Arrested For Naming Pet Dog ‘Buhari’’
A 30-year-old trader has been arrested by the police in Ogun state for naming his pet dog ‘Buhari‘.
According to The Vanguard, the trader, Joe Fortemose Chinakwe, was arrested last weekend, after one of his neighbours, a Northerner complained bitterly that he named his dog after his father, Alhaji Buhari.
The case was reported by the complainant at Sango Police Station, last Saturday, after which the trader was arrested and detained.
Efforts by the police to recover the said dog has proven abortive because the trader colluded with his friends to kill the dog 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.
However, there was a twist in the case 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, revealed 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, said 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.”
The issue is yet to come to an end as relatives of the suspect are still making frantic efforts to effect his bail while his accusers are insisting that he must be prosecuted.
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.
Oyeyemi later called, stating that, “I have made enquiries. 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.”
When asked about the whereabouts of the dog that will be used as evidence against the suspect, 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.”