Man Who Named Dog Buhari Cries Out,Says His Life Is In Danger
The 41-year-old Delta state born trader Mr. Joachim Chinakwe who made the news earlier this week for naming his dog Buhari, was arrested and detained at the Sango Ota Police Station, Ogun State, on August 13, 2016, has alleged threat to life.
Speaking with news media on Friday minutes shortly before being locked behind bars for the second time at the State Police Headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, the capital, after initially being released last Tuesday, said he feared for his life because he does not know what could happen to him next.
In his words “I had to leave for Eleweran very early on Friday after receiving a letter on Thursday evening inviting me to the Command. I thought I was being called over for a peace talk, I never knew it was for the purpose of detaining me again.
“I am a law-abiding citizen of this country, I have never deliberately committed any offence before, I don’t know why I am being treated like this. I only called the dog that name for the love I have for President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigeria, I didn’t mean to taunt or hurt anybody with it. I don’t know what next could follow this, I am afraid for my life, I am in danger, please help me,” Chinakwe pleaded.
“Kalilu, the main accuser, said Buhari was the name of his father and that Joe deliberately gave his dog that name to taunt him and the rest of the Hausa residents in the area.
But come to think of it one may begin to wonder if it is now an offence to give your pet animal the name of your choice.
An officer at the Sango Police Station whose name was withheld but is privy to details of the matter, said that the accused was arrested because his action was intended at causing chaos in the community which has a large Igbo and Hausa presence.
According to him, Chinakwe not only named his dog Buhari but also inscribed it on its body and usually walked with it into the midst of the Hausas, a claim the 41-year-old and his relatives debunked in its entirety,
Acting spokesperson for the Ogun State Police Command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, said on Friday that the accused would be arraigned at the Sango Magistrate Court on Monday.
“The man is here with us at Eleweran, he is being detained at the Criminal Investigation Department. The charge will be prepared and he will be arraigned at Sango Magistrate Court on Monday. What he did was highly provocative, it can cause ethnic and religious crisis,” he revealed.
In another development, human rights lawyer and former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch, Lagos, Monday Ubani, has left his strong vocal stance on the matter stating that there is no such law in Nigeria’s criminal code which states that it is an offence to give your pets a name of your choice.
Though Ubani concedes that this particular case is novel as far as law was concerned in Nigeria to the best of his knowledge, he said the police cannot arrest and detain a person except they are able to prove that the individual’s action is indeed capable of causing breach of public peace.
Be that as it may, the learned counsel expressed his wonders as to why the accused would name a dog after his neighbour’s father as alleged because according to him it could be a bit offensive even though it was not a crime.
