Jos — The lions’ cage at the Jos Wildlife Park in Plateau State will soon receive a lion from the Maiduguri Wildlife Park in Borno State, on a trade by barter deal entered by the two states, state commissioner of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality has said.

“We are giving them one of our animals, because we do in-house breeding here. And they will give us a lion in exchange. This arrangement will replace the lion that was killed late last year,” Nwankon John, who initiated the mutual partnership between the two wildlife parks told ViewPointNigeria, on phone. “We have made a proposal to that effect to the State Executive Council (SEC), and we have got the approval. We are only waiting for the release of funds to do the exchange.”

The lion was shot severally, and killed by the soldiers, drawing worldwide condemnation by animal rights activists who insisted that the park needed to have used trained personnel to demobilise the animal, using tranquilizers and dart guns.

But John Doy, the General Manager of the corporation had said the agency does not have tranquilizers, and decided on inviting the soldiers as last resort to save the lives of residents of neighbouring areas including Federal Low Cost, Angulu Jos and Tudun Wada.

The state commissioner said the proposal to replace Leo was done as a total package which also entails doing a lasting mending of the confinement at the overall cost of about N2 million, before doing the exchange.

Nwankon said the administration of Governor Simon Lalong is committed to reviving the tourism sub-sector, to attract investment in a state recovering from over a decade of violent hostilities.

The park, on December 2, 2015, recorded a loss with the killing of Leo, a lion which escaped confinement through a rusty cage.

Jos Wildlife Park is known for having situation of lions breaking out from the eastern gate. Personnel at the park had said the lion was hungry for days, and was probably on its way to finding food when it jumped unto a raised platform, and forced open the cage.

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PLSG gets replacement for lion killed after escape from Jos wildlife park