Over 3,000 day-old chicks were left to die under the sun, on Thursday, inside a vehicle impounded illegally by task force officials in Imo, a state in Nigeria.
The incident which happened in Owerri has been attributed to a decision by two police officers and three task force officials.
The officials had insisted that the vehicle should have had Imo State emblem on it.
Various states in Nigeria, for the purposes of revenue-generation, require commercial vehicle owners to affix state emblem on their vehicle.
Some owners, especially those whose vehicles travel across several states, however, prefer to get a ‘consolidated’ emblem which allows for easy passage through states and saves them the clumsiness of having to buy emblem from every state.
Tega Silas, the driver of a Toyota Sienna, who transported the day-old chicks – 8,000 of them – from a hatchery in Kaduna State, said he pulled over on the Owerri road on the order of the police officers manning a roadblock.
When PREMIUM TIMES contacted the state’s Commissioner for Transport, Rex Anunobi, said he has spoken with his counterpart in the ministry of livestock on the incident.
Mr Anunobi said the incident was “regrettable”. He promised to look into it to see how the matter could be resolved.
“We hope that such a thing will not occur again,” he added.
Additional Reports by Premium Times, Nigeria.
