Pangolin: Wetin you need to know about dis animal and why some pipo dey 'rush' am

Di news wey just comot from China say di kontri don jail 17 pipo for di smuggling of 23 tonnes of pangolin scales from Nigeria wey worth 28 million dollars.

BBC say di two men wey lead di smuggle wey happun between 2018 and 2019 go spend 13 and 14 years for prison while di oda 15 pipo get from 15 months to 2 years for prison.

Pangolin wey some pipo dey sabi as 'anteater' na di most trafficked land animal for di world and na for mostly sub saharan Africa dem dey especially Nigeria and Cameroon. You fit also find dem for Asia.

Reports say for many years now, pipo dey hunt dem down for dia meat and dia scales, wey dem dey use as medicine for both Asia and Africa and dis na wetin dey make dem go extra miles across di world to get am.

E dey hard to determine di actual figure of Pangolin wey dem don trade illegally over di years, but between 2014 and 2018, United Nations office on Drugs and Crime, (UNODC) say di equivalent of 370,000 pangolins na im dem seize globally, e suggest say dem don traffic and kill millions of Pangolins.

How much be pangolin?

Ishaku Bala na farmer and hunter for Kogi state for central Nigeria and e tell BBC say e don catch pangolin and sell many times although recently di animal dey hard to see.

"Apart from farming, I also be hunter for 10 years now and I don catch pangolin many times before, at first, di price no dey pass N1000 for one but now e dey reach N5000-7000 for one so di price don go up."

On whether e dey aware about interest from Asia about pangolin, di hunter say e no know all dat one.

"Wetin I dey think be say pipo wey dey buy am na pipo wey just like to eat bush meat, I no sabi say na china abi oda kontris dem dey carry am go."

Pangolin fit finish for Nigeria and oda African kontris?

Abdullahi Isyaku of Sokoto state university na oga for African voice for Animal Initiative and e tell BBC say of course e dey possible for di animal to finish kpata-kpata if goment and pipo no stop di illegal trade.

"Already pangolin dey endangered which means say dia numbers don drop wella and in fact we dey do research presently to show di level of di damage so far."

"We happy about dis judgement from China and we hope say e go stop oda bad pipo wey dey come here come pack our wildlife carry fo, we dey aware say many asians dey visit here just for dat purpose."

Lastly, Abdullahi yan say di orientation of African pipo about protecting animals need to change and goments need to also put more effort on to di mata.