The National Agricultural Quarantine Service has said that some Chinese Nationals have been arrested for engaging in illegal trade in donkey skin.
The Comptroller General, NAQS, Dr Vincent Isegbe, who made the disclosure during a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday however did not mention the number of those in custody.
Isegbe said that the ban on the export of donkey skin was still in force and warned that anybody caught violating the law would be dealt with decisively.
He said that NAQS would not condone the slaughter of the Nigerian donkey whose population has reduced drastically.
He said that the illicit trade in donkey skin was against ‘the NAQS Act, the Customs prohibition list and the Nigeria Disease Control Act.’
He stated further that Quarantine Service has raided several camps where donkey are slaughtered and have confiscated several materials which were destroyed.
He said: “on the issue of the predicament of the donkey, it is important to know that the Nigerian donkey is going into extinction; the population has gone down drastically, and the slaughter of donkey is bad.
“The law is against it- the slaughter, transportation, storage and the trade in donkey hides, the same manner you cannot import any wet, dry or blue hides of livestock into Nigeria and you cannot export it.
“So, you need the necessary clearance from government if you are going to do otherwise and government will not give you that permission.
“So there is no reason why any Nigerian or foreigner should be engaged in this illegal trade. We are aware that there are camps for slaughtering of donkeys across the country. The Quarantine Service has visited several of those camps, confiscated materials and destroyed them accordingly.
“However we regret to announce that some Nigerians and even foreigners have continued despite government directives that no one should engage in it
“As I am talking to you now, some Chinese persons have been arrested in respect of that and they are in police custody. The necessary investigations are going on and you will know the outcome at the end of the day.
He said that rather than killing the donkeys, Nigerians are encouraged to open donkey ranches, breeding centers or farms stressing that Nigeria like most African countries would not allow the illicit trade in donkey hides.