He says his skills as a retired soldier gave him the courage to handle various reptiles such as python snake, crocodiles, and alligators, whose length ranged from 15 to 30 feet, and other wild animals. “I have been doing this over five years now and without fear, no fear,” he says.
Popularly called “old soldier”, Mr. Osumri, along with his group of four boys, got onlookers curious when they carried a “resting” python snake from a swamp in Opebi to Sheraton Hotel yesterday, where they displayed it, awaiting any interested customer with a penchant for wild meat.
Mr. Osumri, who switched to pidgin whenever he wanted to stress a point, boasts of customers from Victoria Island and other parts of the metropolis, who are ready to part with as much as N35,000 for a lifeless python or N250,000 for a live one; N40,000 for dead crocodiles, and between N80,000 and N90,000, for a live one. “The difference is clear. If I say I hold am alive, na N250,000, no reduction of one naira. But as it dey like this now, it is in a weak condition, which can be N30,000 to N35,000.” He admits there are difficulties in finding the reptiles. “I used to get it all the time, three times in a week, once in a month, or even once in 10 months because it’s not easy to get.” He said that he often sells them under the bridge at Oregun, Ikeja, and even though he sells them, he cannot eat them.
Fearless hunter
Explaining how he started, he stated that he loves wild animals and his need to survive engineered the idea. “There is a swamp in Opebi where all these animals sometimes come to and so we set traps for them, and kill them,” Mr. Osumri explains.
“It’s my job. When I resigned from the Nigeria Army, I face hunting because I like wild animals. I am a bush man in Nigeria here, so I am here to fear no one. Both crocodile, python, anything at all, it’s my possession, alligators, tortoise...if anybody need from me, I am the one that produce it.”
Mr. Osumri and his boys said they kill because they need money to survive. “When I no get money, na to fight heaven and earth till I get am, not by force but to see I eat my daily bread. When we were kids, we used to kill rabbit and bush meat, so we don’t fear anything again,” he said.
“We use sense to kill it; if we no use sense, it will kill us,” one of his boys, Dare Shonibare, said, describing the python as “resourceful and medicinal.” He added, “This python is gold and silver. You can use the oil to fix bone problems in your body; all the parts are medicinal.”
He doesn’t have enough money to set up a large house, or maybe a zoo for the reptiles and other animals he catches. “I get cage, reservation area for my house which I keep some animals, but anyone I bring out here is for marketing purpose. I no get money to buy land in Lagos. For now, na for my house I dey keep all of them,” he said.
As the crowd, which had gathered, watched, 47-year-old Mutiu Kareem, a police officer, came to the scene and offered to buy the snake. According to him, he does not eat them, but trains them and uses the parts for personal experiment. “I do train live animals in my house, I just like it. My house is like a zoo. Some of them I use for personal experiment, like the bones. I have bought so many animals from him (Mr. Osumri); sometimes I buy crocodile which I am training at home.”
Ben Ayonha, a trader, who is familiar with the business of Mr. Osumri, said, “I see more than this all the time. It’s good business; my prayer is that God will help him not to see bad one who can wound him. He uses the money to do business and train his children for school.”
Another observer, Seun Makanjuola, a student, expressed his surprise. “I have not even seen such a thing like this before. For me, seeing such a thing like this seem somehow to me,” he said.
Comments