Ahead of the eid-el-Kabir festival scheduled for Tuesday next week, Residents of Lokoja who have purchased their ram are now living in fear as the theft of Rams has risen drastically.
The Nigerianpost gathered from some residents living in and around 200 housing units of how rams are been stolen from some houses.
Hajia Suleiman Inuwa Kadir, a resident of one of the 200 unit estate woke up to a surprise as the ram she bought for N70,000 developed wings and scaled a very high fence.
While she was busy with her Lamentations of how she struggled to buy the ram, Mallam Tanke Idachaba, another victim equally expressed disappointment, that up till 2:00am early hours of today, he still saw his ram but woke up later for his 5:00am prayers only to the startling surprise that the ram he bought for N120,000 had disappeared.
An average ram is presently sold for between N50,000 and N60,000 with the limit reaching N200,000 to N250,000 in the city capital as at Press time. The prices are likely to rise during the weekend according to Mallam Bala Mairago, a ram seller located at the Ram Market, near Banda, few metres after Lokoja.
Reacting to the ugly development, a Lokoja based Islamic Cleric, Yahya Salihu advised Muslims to only use their legitimate means to buy ram for Eid-el-Kabir sacrifice.
Sheik Salihu, who is also a Chief Imam of a Jumma’at Mosques, gave the advice in an interview warned Muslims against using ill-gotten money for the purchase of ram for sacrifice, noted that the Almighty Allah was pure and would accept only that which was clean and pure.
Sheik Salihu also admonished Muslims to have good intention for the sacrifice because it was a prerequisite to achieving acceptable sacrifice.
According to him, the meat or blood of the sacrificed ram cannot reach but Allah is only concern about the piety of a believer.
He explained that the act of slaughtering animal as sacrifice was a tradition that was highly encouraged among Muslims, which was performed on the 10th of Zul-Hijjah and the following three days.
“It is an essential religious rite in memory of the sacrifice performed by Prophet Ibrahim.
“It involves the slaughtering of domestic animal (sheep, goat, cow or camel) and offering it as a sacrifice during these days of Sallah celebrations,” he said.
He enjoined Muslims to ensure that the animal to be sacrificed had reached the required age, adding a minimum of six months for a sheep, one year for a goat, two years for cow and five years for camel.
For now some residents spoken to by the Nigerianpost say they would begin to mount vigil, pointing out that they cannot afford to loose their rams at this time.