Why I Named My Dog 'Buhari' - Trader Released After 3-days in Detention, Narrates Bitter Ordeal

Posted by Odinaka on Thu 18th Aug, 2016 - tori.ng

An embattled trader who was arrested by the Ogun State police command and was detained for 3-days after naming his pet dog 'Buhari', has narrated his ordeal in police cell.

The trader, Chinakwe

We earlier reported it yesterday that a 30-year-old trader identified as Joe Fortemose Chinakwe, was arrested last Saturday by the Police in Ogun State, and was released unconditionally on Tuesday, for naming his pet dog ‘Buhari’.

After spending 3-days in police cell, the trader who was visibly angry after he was released around 5:00pm on Tuesday after the intervention of both the Serkin Hausa and President-General of non-indigenes in the state, after both the complainant and suspect were made to sign an undertaking not to cause any breach of peace again.

In an exclusive interview with Vanguard after this release, the trader and father of two from the Niger Delta who trades on second hand clothing, lamented that he was made to suffer for no just cause.

Narrating his ordeal, Chinakwe said;

“It is annoying because the complainant is from Niger Republic and I am sure he is one of those illegal aliens in this country. He connived with one Police Sergeant from the Northern part of Nigeria called Musa, who works at Sango Police division to humiliate me. Worse still, the Divisional Police Officer there, did not help matters as he refused to entertain any plea from me after I was arrested that Saturday night. He simply ordered his men to throw me into the cell.”

Speaking on the reason why the pet dog was named Buhari, he said;

“I did not commit any offence. I named my beloved pet dog Buhari, who is my hero. My admiration for Buhari started far back when he was a military Head of State. It continued till date that he is a civilian President. After reading his dogged fight against corruption, which is like a canker worm eating into the very existence of this country, I solely decided to rename my beloved dog which I called Buhari, after him. I did not know that I was committing an offence for admiring Buhari.

Commenting further on his ordeal with the Police, he said;

“I was intimidated and thrown inside the cell with hardened criminals for about three days. While I was there, the complainant from Niger Republic and Sergeant Musa from the North kept on taunting me saying people from my part of the country are trouble makers and that after detaining me, they will throw me into prison where I will die unsung.

”Even when my wife came with our baby on her back, they stopped her from giving me food. One of my friends that came to see me was also maltreated.

“While taking me to Eleweran the next day, they handcuffed and chained me together with that my friend. Fortunately, when we got to police headquarters, both the Commissioner of Police and other officers were angry with their colleagues at Sango-Ota.

”They were wondering loudly why I was brought to the headquarters over such a minor case. It’s very unfortunate that I have to be so humiliated in my own country because of the antics of a foreigner in connivance with my brother from the North.”