A Fulani family in Kaduna State has cried out after 31 of their cows which were detained by the police suddenly went missing.
The family who live in Kaban village in Igabi Local Government Area, petitioned the state governor Nasir El-Rufai, and the State commissioner of Police, Ahmad Abdurrahman, to help recover the missing cows.
A member of the family, Abubakar Ibrahim, popularly known as Habu, while speaking with newsmen, said the police stormed his home and accused him of having a gun.
Ibrahim said that upon completion of a search, no gun was discovered in his home. His cows were however seized and allegedly taken to Abuja.
All efforts to recover the cows had proved abortive as the police refused to divulge their whereabouts, instead extorting huge sums of money from them.
He claimed to have spent over N1.7 on the alleged bribes”
“I have never own a gun in my life. I personally met the officer who also told me that their investigation later shows I’m innocent but yet he requested for N700,000 bribe from me before the cows will be released but I told him I don’t have that amount of money so he later collected N200,000 naira yet, the cows are still not return,” he said.
Abubakar said his family have so far spent over N1 million to secure the release of their cows.
“My sibling and my brother in-law, who went after the cows to inquire reasons for the police action, were detained for two weeks. We have no option but to bail them with N580,000. So far, we have spent N1.750 million to recover those cows and the sheep because they (police) kept collecting money from us without telling us where the cows are. The police officers kept telling us that the cows have been taken to Abuja.
“This is why we are calling on the State Governor and the Commissioner of police to intervene by calling on the police officers to return our cows,” he said.
When contacted, the State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Sabo declined comments.
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