Senior Special Assistant to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, says the President must be having a good laugh over the arrest and trial of Chinakwe Joachim Iroko who named his dog Buhari.
Instead of addressing the human rights concerns and issues as it should be, the Presidency, tried to water down such a weighty arrest that has the attention of the International media following the plight of the detained man.
Garba Shehu wrote, “I am thinking of saying, using my own handle that people linking the President to this dog incident are just displaying their ignorance of the type of person he is.”
He went on to say “He (Buhari) enjoys cartoons and likes sharing them. The ones he enjoys the most are those that caricature him. It is cheap and sensational to say he can order a police action against a caricature.
The Presidency in the statement by Buhari’s Spokesman failed to address the issues of “Police state and clampdown” on dissenting voices which has been a concern for Nigerians since the assumption of office of the Buhari government, instead made fun of the situation.
“When he picks a paper, the first page he reaches for is the cartoon page. He laughs and laughs. The President must be having a good laugh over this whole thing.”
He then added that “People should listen to the real story behind this dog incident and to not waste precious time seeking the hand of the President in a laughable incident!’
NewsWireNGR recalls that the police in Ogun State, South West Nigeria chargeed the man to court for naming his dog Buhari.
Buhari is the surname of the Nigerian president, Muhammadu, who assumed office on May 29, 2015.
The spokesperson of the police in Ogun, Abimbola Oyeyemi, tells newsmen that after investigations, the police concluded that the man’s actions could cause a “breach of public peace.”
“The Ogun State Police Command has resolved to charge the suspect to court on Monday to forestall breach of public peace which the suspect’s action may likely cause,” Mr. Oyeyemi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, said.
“His action is a provocative one and that is why the suspect will be charged for conduct likely to cause breach of public peace,” he added, saying a one-count charge would filed.
The accused, Joe Chinakwe, 30, was arrested and confined to a police cell in Sango Otta, Ogun State, for three days last week after a neighbour complained that he named his dog Buhari, Vanguard Newspaper reported.
The neighbour, who police identified as Halilu Umar from Sokoto State, reportedly told the police that Mr. Chinakwe’s decision was aimed at ridiculing his father who was named ‘Alhaji Buhari.’
