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Some members of dried meat preservers traders association of Nigeria, Wednesday, alleged that they have lost over N50 million worth of donkey skins to some persons masquerading as a government agent all over the country.
Addressing a joint press conference in Onitsha, Chairman of Onitsha branch, Mr Ikechukwu Aniude, flanked by his Sokoto State counterpart, Hamza Ahmed, Sani Ahmed (Gombe State), Kadiri Abubakar (Bornu State), and Alhaja Yawa Idi ( Oyo State), alleged that some persons claiming to be from Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Services, have been invading their donkey skin processing camps nationwide with security agents to extort them.
Aniude, who alleged that over 1600 pieces of donkey skins worth N50 million processed on June 26, 2020 were seized by the people using security men including, the military and the paramilitary agents, said the anomaly had forced them to shut down their camps and shops in protest for weeks.
“Our worry is that these people who come to extort money from us and seize our goods and donkey skin, refuse to properly identify themselves. They refuse to tell us where their office is located and where they are taking our goods to. They only tell us their headquarters is in Enugu but we have not been able to locate them anywhere in Enugu state.
“Apart from seizing our goods, they have been extorting between N200,000 to N800,000 from us with the allegation that we are illegal exporters with threats to jail us if we refuse to comply. But we are not into exporting business. Our business is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission,” he said.
Also contributing, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the association, Mr. Ogbonna Nwabueze, who claimed that the business has existed before the Nigerian Civil War and some of them inherited it from their parents and grandparents, appealed for government intervention to get release their goods and put a stop on the alleged extortions.
