Some residents of Dutse, the Jigawa capital, have decried the surging cases of goat and other ruminant theft in their communities.
Findings by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in the last one week revealed that the thieves are mainly targeting goats and poultry in the communities.
Adama Idris, a mother of four and resident of the Jigawa Tsada community, whose goat valued at N35,000 was recently stolen, told NAN that over five goats and a ram were stolen in the area.
Another resident of the Takur site area, Ahmad Balarabe, said that his goat, valued at N37,000, was stolen on Friday evening.
“I bought the goat N37,000 recently from salary, but unfortunately it was stolen on Friday evening.
“The most painful part of it is that the goat is pregnant, and that is why I refused to sell it, in spite of having financial difficulties, but some heartless people decided to steal it from me,” Balarabe said.
He alleged that the thieves terrorizing the area were using motorcycles to steal goats, sheep, rams, and chickens belonging to residents.
Balarabe said that the suspects targeted the time when most residents went out for their daily endeavors to steal the animals.
A cattle rearer, Malam Jamilu Sani, also of Takur area, said that his neighbour busted a syndicate that attempted to steal his goat at about 11 p.m.
“I was in the town when four people came in a car and attempted to steal my goat, but luckily for me, my neighbor saw them from far away and directed his torchlight at them.
“That was when they quickly rushed back to the car they came with and drove away,” Sani said.
Also, Alh. Musa Ibrahim, a resident of the Kazama area, said that recently, residents of the area busted a group of thieves who came in a golf car to steal goats in the area.
“The thieves nowadays use either motorcycles or cars to steal goats and other animals. Like the ones we busted recently in our area that came with a car to steal,” Ibrahim said.
Also, Malam Jafaru Isa said a goat and a ram were also stolen from his community.
“This is what we are battling with in our area too; even yesterday and the day before yesterday, a goat and ram were stolen in my area,” Isa said.
However, many of the residents blamed butchers for the development, alleging that it was the butchers that usually bought the stolen animals from the suspects at cheap prices.
They alleged that without the butchers buying the animals, the thieves would have no option but to stop stealing them.
They said that this was because when the suspects took the animals to formal markets, they would be interrogated and eventually arrested when they could not give a satisfactory account of the animals.
“This is what made the thieves stop taking the stolen animals to market to sell and resorted to selling them to some of the butchers around.
However, when contacted, the leader of butchers in Dutse, Alhaji Ado Sarkin-Fawa, denied the allegations, saying that there was never a time when a butcher was arrested in connection to any of the theft to justify the allegations.
Sarkin-Fawa said parents should monitor their wards as one of the major ways in containing the development instead of focusing on butchers involved in their legitimate business.
A butcher who spoke on condition of anonymity at the Dutse Abattoir, however, said that there are possible bad eggs amongst the butchers that are involved but do not bring such animals to the abattoir.
“Under normal circumstances, no butcher is supposed to sell meat without obtaining it from an abattoir, because before animals are slaughtered for human consumption, they are inspected and certified by animal health workers at the facility.
“Stolen animals cannot find their way to the abattoir, so the bad elements among the butchers may buy stolen animals and slaughter them at home before bringing the meat out to sell,” he said.
When contacted, the spokesman of the Police Command in Jigawa, SP Lawan Shiisu, said the Command would investigate the growing incident before responding to the press. (NAN)
