An international animal rights protection group has asked the Nigerian police to arrest and investigate Enenie Nwa Ite over “disturbing” Facebook posts that allegedly depict animal torture and killings that could “pose a threat to the community at large.”

According to the animal rights group, Mr Nwa Ite parades himself as a high chief of Ovoko Ohagu village in Enugu.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) of Norfolk in the United States, wrote Nigeria’s inspector general of police, Kayode Egbetokun and Kanayo Uzuegbu (police commissioner in Enugu) to carry out an urgent investigation on Mr Nwa Ite and remove all the animals in his possession to prevent them from being further brutalised.

“‘Enenie nwa ite’ and his cohorts are shown beating and starving animals, slowly roasting live animals over open fires, cutting open pregnant animals and torturing and killing their foetuses,” PETA said in a statement on Friday.

The Facebook posts allegedly showed the Nigerian citizen “slowly splitting and torturing puppies to death while they scream in agony, and setting living animals on fire, among other atrocities.”

PETA stressed that Mr Nwa Ite’s behaviour showed him to be mentally unstable and that he must be “locked up” immediately before more animals would suffer at his hands. 

“These gruesome videos depict extraordinary cruelty by someone who appears to be mentally unbalanced and sadistic and who needs to be stopped,” PETA’s senior vice-president Jason Baker said. 

Mr Baker urged security agencies to quickly intervene to stop Mr Nwa-Ite from further inflicting harm on vulnerable animals.

“PETA is calling on authorities to intervene to lock up this violent abuser for the sake of vulnerable animals and because studies show that such wantonly cruel people pose a danger to the entire community,” he stated.

The group also noted that the so-called Nigerian high chief solicited funds from his viewers on Facebook whilst encouraging them to harm animals.