Olayinka Ajayi, a Lagos-based livestock trader, may run into a heavy financial loss in the coming days if the police officers from the Intelligent Response Team at STS Abattoir in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, continue to keep his livestock with them.
Ajayi told FIJ that police detained a truck transporting his 37 cows and goats to Lagos on Sunday and have refused to release it, even after confirming that none of the animals was stolen.
He said that after some labourers had loaded the cows into the trucks from Gusau on Sunday, the driver started heading for the southwest when the police stopped him at the Suleja-Abuja road, arrested the man tending to the cows, and seized the truck with the cows inside it.
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“The truck would have arrived in Lagos on Monday afternoon, but when I did not hear from them, I called the driver to find out why they were not here yet. He said that the police seized the truck along Suleja-Abuja Road. The person who takes care of the cows inside the truck was also arrested,” Ajayi told FIJ.
“If you’re buying cows here in the north, we buy with pictures and present them as evidence that we didn’t steal them. This guy tending to the cows presented the pictures, but they didn’t release the truck. They took the truck to Abattoir STS in Abuja.”
He said that the executives of the cattle dealers’ association in Zamfara were planning on getting him a lawyer, but he feared that it would make the cows susceptible to anything bad.
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“I don’t know how long they’d stay alive if we go this route. My customers are on my neck asking me when they would get their cows,” he said.
When FIJ contacted Josephine Adeh, the FCT Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), for comments, she asked our reporter to contact Muyiwa Adejobi, the Force spokesperson. When FIJ called him, he did not take his calls. At press time, he had not responded to the text sent to his line.
Dear @tpyga4 , this unit (CRU) is currently working on your complaint and have forwarded it to the appropriate authority for necessary action. Thank you for contacting NPF-CRU.— POLICE COMPLAINT (@PoliceNG_CRU) October 29, 2024
However, the Nigeria Police Complaint Response Unit on X told the source at 10:28 a.m. that they were working on his complaint and had forwarded it to the appropriate authority for the necessary action.
The post Livestock Trader Risks Heavy Loss as Police ‘Unlawfully’ Detain Truck With 37 Cows appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.