The dust raised by the mysterious “goat” that was paraded last week by the Kwara State Police Command as a suspect in an attempt to steal a Mazda car in Ilorin appeared not to be over as the goat has refused to eat grass or any other thing but has been feeding only on water since the day it was detained by the police.
The goat which is still in the custody of the police was said to be a ‘robbery suspect’ which turned into a goat to avoid arrest when the suspect met a brick wall as he was being pursued by a vigilance team.
The head of the team, Prince Omoniyi Nasirudeen, however, insisted that the “goat” should be prosecuted, arguing that it was a human being armed robbery suspect that mysteriously turned to the animal.
He said: “The suspected car thief we wanted to apprehend turned to that goat, we quickly apprehended it and even alerted the residents who all came out to see it.’’
The goat suspected to be humanHe further explained that the armed robbers who attempted to steal the car were two and that when they beamed torchlight on them with the intention of apprehending them they ran away and they were chased until one of them disappeared while the second suspect turned to goat.
He added that “the suspect was actually a human being and was still running until he was pursued to a corner where he quickly put his back behind the wall with one of the legs and turned to the goat which was quickly grabbed.”
He said further that the entire residents were immediately alerted to come and see what happened and that one elderly woman among the crowd called the goat Saliu and later went away.”
When asked if he can still identify the elderly woman and why she was not arrested based on the revelation, he said he could not identify the woman and that she was not arrested because there was no clear link between her and the suspects.
Efforts to get the update of the development as at press time from the head of the vigilancte group proved abortive as his GSM line was not available.
Meanwhile, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Donald Iroham, said yesterday that investigation has been concluded in the matter and that the animal will be sold off within the next 24 hours if no one came forward to claim it.
The police boss, who addressed a press conference yesterday at the Police Headquarters in Ilorin, explained that the command was being guided by the Police Act part 4 section 3 (1) which states that if any property comes to the custody of the police, the court of jurisdiction may on application sell the item and pay the proceed to police reward fund account.
“We are expecting the court order, then we will put the goat on sale for whoever is interested to come and buy, if within the next 24 hours the owner refused to come and claim it,’’ he stressed.
The police commissioner, who suspended his yearly leave to address the press, however, described the incident as an embarrassment to the police authorities because it was not possible for such incident to happen in this 24 th Century.
According to him, ”it is not possible for a man to turn to a goat, it is not scientific, it is not possible, it should be discarded, we are not happy about it at all.’’
Meanwhile, the Kwara State Government has appealed to the people of the state, especially the residents of Ilorin to disregard the alleged mysterious goat accused of being a man who had attempted to snatch a car.