Ifeoma Chinakwe
The pregnant wife of the man who
named his dog Buhari has cried out for the unjustly treatment of her
husband. The man identified as Mr. Joachim Chinakwe, 41 was arrested and
detained at the Sango Ota Police Station, Ogun State, on August 13,
2016, for naming his dog Buhari. He was later released after public
protest, only to be rearrested again.
The sudden travial has left his pregnant wife, Ifeoma and 18-mont-old daughter Temi highly devastated.
While lamenting her sorrow to Punch, she said: “This is the saddest period of my life,” the heartbroken woman said fighting back tears. “Since
I met and married my husband three years ago, I have never felt this
bad or suffered this much. But since this problem started, I and my
daughter have been badly affected,” she continued.
“When I went to the police station last Sunday morning to see
him, the officers instead of allowing me in, started abusing me. They
told me that they would make sure I give birth behind my husband’s cell.
Even though I was crying and pleading with them to allow me see him,
they kept abusing me, not minding my present condition.
“Since that day, I have not been able to eat well. Also, I and
Temi have been very sick and we have been on medications. On several
occasions she would wake me up at night, crying and asking after her
father. I don’t know what to tell her, so I would also cry.
“The two of us cannot sleep in the house alone, so in the
evenings, I go to my aunty’s house at Ojuore to stay till morning before
returning home. I am just praying that all the stress that I have been
through and tears that I have shed the past few days don’t affect the
baby or even make me to lose the child because already, I am not as
healthy as I was before this problem started. I won’t lie to you; life
has not been the same for me and my daughter without him around,” the
heavily-pregnant mother said before finally succumbing to her emotions."
She cried.
Mr. Joachim Chinakwe
She cried and wailed in a sorrow-laden voice pouring out her heart
of the shocking predicament that has befallen her family. Speaking about
the matter, a relative, Obinna Obasi said the case apart from taking
its toll on their energies and time, had also drained their pockets.
He said relatives and friends of Chinakwe have even had to borrow
money from a micro finance bank to hire lawyers to fight his case – one
of whom he said even duped them in the process.
“This matter has really drained us financially,” Obasi revealed. “The
little that we even have has been exhausted. We have spent everything
on us to get a lawyer and also run around trying to find a solution to
this problem. In fact, a few days ago, we had to borrow some money from a
micro finance bank because we didn’t want him to remain and die in
police cell. The first lawyer we paid to handle the case for us
disappeared with our money. We had to go beyond our power to raise money
to hire another lawyer. To be honest, I cannot estimate the amount of
money we have spent so far on this case in trying to get Joe released,” he said.
Narrating how the entire issue started, Obasi, who said he was with
the detained man at the time of his first arrest last Saturday,
explained that all efforts to get the matter resolved has been
frustrated by the accuser and his backers who have only been pretending
to be on the side of peace.
“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 we are still wondering
if it is now an offence to give your pet animal the name of your
choice. Even if you say it is an offence, at least we have all sat
together to resolve the whole issue and the man himself has shown some
sense of responsibility by saying he was sorry if his action offended
anybody. So, why is he still being harassed till now? This is not fair.
His persecution is affecting his pregnant wife and little daughter who
have both been very sick as a result of the problem,” he said.
The policemen at Sango Police Station have refused to allow anybody
near the man, not even his family members as they locked him away.
Acting spokesperson for the Ogun State Police Command, Abimbola
Oyeyemi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, revealed 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 said.
Baring his mind on the predicament of the man, a human rights
lawyer and former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja
Branch, Lagos, Monday Ubani revealed 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.
According to him, 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.
He however, wonders 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.
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