Amid the fear of the Ebola virus in Nigeria, it was with disbelief that residents of Iguosa community in Ovia North East Local Government Council of Edo State ran to an uncompleted building in the area to see an 18-year-old boy, simply identified as Ighodaro, making love to a dog.

Curiously, the dog was said to have enjoyed the sex before the crowd stormed the scene. Ighodaro was in JSS 2 before he dropped out from school, due to the inability of his poor parents to pay his school fees.

He learnt welding, but, while doing that, he became a lover of dogs.  He confessed to Sunday Vanguard that he has slept with different dogs five times until this last episode. It was learnt that a member of the community was passing by the uncompleted building when he sighted the boy making love to the dog and raised the alarm that attracted the villagers.

Mr George Ogbonmwa, owner of the dog, expressed  shock at the incident, explaining that when he saw the young man with the dog, he did not know he had an ulterior motive. “I thought he wanted to play with the dog only for him to end up in an  uncompleted building where he had canal knowledge of the dog.

This is like another dream to me because I have not seen this kind of thing in my life before”. Following what the villagers described as an abomination, the Odionwere (head) of the community, Elder Clifford Igiehon, was invited to the scene and expressed shock over the incident which he described as a taboo.

He said,”We have never seen this kind of thing before in this  community. This is an abominable act and we don’t want the suspect to come and corrupt other people here.   What he committed was a taboo. We will call the parents to come and atone the gods but the boy will go on his own, because we cannot kill him.

But we have killed the dog because that is the first thing to do. And because we don’t want this kind of taboo to happen again, we decided to hand the boy over to the police. This kind of thing has never happened before, the boy has to face the music. The parents will perform traditional rites, it is going to cost about a hundred thousand Naira.

The boy knows what he is doing, he is not mad. We know him from the beginning, he was in school before he went to learn welding; may be the parents could not pay his school fees. We were even shocked he said he has had sex with dogs five times; that will tell you he knows what he is doing”.

The community leaders further used the opportunity to appeal to the police: “Give us more policemen in our area because a lot of evil things are happening now. Like what the boy did is a taboo and they must cleanse the land with the appropriate sacrifice. We need the police to be around us so that these evil happenings will stop”.

The suspect, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard at the Edo State Police Command Headquarters, Benin-City, said he did not know what was wrong with him, admitting that he enjoyed sex with five dogs while two bit him during the act.  “I learnt welding around Iheya. I don’t know when I slept with the dog, I slept with dogs five times. Some of the dogs  bit me, I have been bitten two times and each time I have a dog bite my grand father will treat me”, he said.

Asked about the tactics he deployed to attract the dogs, Ighodaro stated: “When I call them, I will be rubbing their head, petting them so that they will feel free with me. I will be playing with them and they will follow me. They will bark at me some times, and when I notice that it is serious I will leave them. Any one that is friendly with me, I take that one to an uncompleted building and have sex”.

The suspect who was asked about his girl friend, said he broke up with her last year and started making love to dogs this year. His words: “ I had a girlfriend last year but we are no longer together. I started sleeping with dogs this year around March. I don’t know what is wrong with me.

None of my relations knows I sleep with dogs. In this particular case, the dog is very familiar with me; so it was easy to lure it away. While I was having sex with the dog, one man saw me and ran to inform the Odionwere. They now came to pick me and they asked the police to go and check me and see if I have any disease. I don’t know what is wrong with me”.

Edo State Police Commissioner, Foluso Adebanjo, who reacted to the incident, narrated: “It was the people of that community that arrested the boy and called the police.

He was taken to Owotubu Division before he was transferred to the state Police Command Headquarters. What he has done is classified under Unnatural Offences, Section 214 Sub-Section Two which says that any person who has carnal knowledge of an animal is guilty of a felony and he is liable for imprisonment for 14 years if he is found guilty. We are going to charge him to court. You can see that the guy is not denying anything.

He made a confessional statement that he has been sleeping with dogs since March and he has done it five times. I was very worried because this is an unnatural offence and it can bring problem to any community.

You can imagine a human being sleeping with a dog what will that dog produce in some months time; , you can see it is a bizarre situation. The boy looks normal unless if he has spiritual problem because I can’t imagine some body sleeping with a dog.

He said he had a girl friend before; you can imagine if he decides to sleep with another woman what he will give the woman and that is how they spread diseases particularly now that we have different diseases, It is really shocking that we experience this type of issue every day in our country. I am very worried but thank God that the community people have killed that dog because they said what the boy committed was a taboo”.