The bizarre case of how Nigerian police detained a goat for armed robbery

• In January 2009, vigilantes in Ilorin, Kwara State, reportedly handed police a goat after alleging that a suspected car thief had transformed into the animal.

• Police spokesman Tunde Mohammed confirmed that the goat was in custody but said the alleged transformation required scientific proof.

• The bizarre incident attracted international media coverage, although the available reports do not establish the final outcome of the case.

Imagine chasing an armed robbery suspect, only for the person you are pursuing to allegedly turn into a goat before your eyes. 

It sounds like a scene from a Nollywood supernatural thriller, but in January 2009, this was the extraordinary explanation a group of vigilantes gave Nigerian police in Ilorin, Kwara State.

The story became an international sensation after the vigilantes handed over a black-and-white goat they claimed was a suspected car thief who had transformed into an animal to escape arrest.

The police confirmed that they had the goat in custody. Whether a human being had actually turned into one, however, was another matter entirely.

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According to a report published by Reuters on January 23, 2009, the incident began when a local vigilante group was patrolling the streets of Ilorin and reportedly spotted two men attempting to steal a Mazda 323.

The vigilantes pursued the alleged suspects, but one escaped. The other, according to their account, did something far more unusual by transforming into a goat.

Rather than treating the animal as an ordinary stray, the vigilantes seized it and took it to the police, insisting that it was the suspect they had been chasing.

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Tunde Mohammed, who was the Kwara State police spokesman at the time, confirmed that the animal had been brought to the station, although he stopped short of endorsing the vigilantes' explanation.

Speaking to Reuters, Mohammed recounted their version of events: “The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol, they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However, one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat.”

“We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody,” he said. He also explained that the police could not simply accept the supernatural explanation without evidence.

“We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat.”

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In other words, the police had an animal brought in by people who accused it of being a robbery suspect. They had not established that the animal was a transformed human being, nor had they proved that it had participated in a crime.

The incident attracted considerable public attention, with reports describing residents visiting the police station to see the unusual suspect for themselves.

Recent reports confirm that the goat was in police custody, but the available reliable accounts do not establish precisely when it was released, whether an owner claimed it or how the matter was ultimately resolved.

There is also no verified evidence that a human suspect was scientifically identified as having transformed into the animal or that anyone was prosecuted on that basis.