A Nigerian shopkeeper told today (Thurs) how he ar

A Nigerian shopkeeper told today (Thurs) how he arranged delivery of a smoked monkey to help a fellow-countryman become a chief by staging an ethnic feast.

Mobolaji Osakuade said his ‘desperate’ customer wanted to impress tribal chiefs to inherit a title in the African homeland.

But he denied he knew importation of an endangered species – or even ‘bushmeat’ sold at the shop in East London’s Dalston Market was illegal.

Little knowing the customer was an undercover reporter investigating such trade, he said he was told ‘it was desperately needed to entertain his chief.

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He said he immediately contacted a shop in Peckham in a bid to purchase primate meat and spoke to regular suppliers to the shop – who used people travelling from Nigeria to import delicacies.

But caught on secret camera, Osakuade said it was ‘highly unfortunate’ the saga now involved his partner Rose Kinnane, who he maintained knew nothing about the trade.

‘This will go down with me into my grave,’ said the 40-year-old.

And asked why he admitted knowingly importing the ‘expensive’ carcass, he said:

‘Because I acted as an intermediary.

This is the first time I have been in this mess in my life.

I had no alternative, I am a middle man.

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Kinnane, 35, maintains she knew nothing about an undercover reporter paying pnds stlng 350 at Mercyland Trading, in Dalston Market, in London’s East End, for the Tantalus Monkey, which had been smoked to preserve the carcass.

She said she had been sick and the special order must have been filled Osakuade – believing the journalist was in fact a ‘royal’ Nigerian hoping to impress tribal chiefs.

Osakuade, 40, of (3) Petworth House, East Dulwich Estate, se London, admits being knowingly concerned in the importation of the monkey and selling the primate in October 1999.

However, he denies ten further charges of acquiring and keeping for sale other endangered species – Pangolin – a shy and retiring anteater, lizards, a python skin, and a lizard handbag.

His common-law-wife Rose Kinnane, 34, of the same address, denies all 12 charges.

Osakuade agreed he quoted pnds stlng 5,000 to the customer for a whole male lion, but told the jury: ‘we couldn’t get it, we couldn’t.

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He said he was trying to impress the customer hoping for a boost in trade.

‘Just to draw customers to the shop.

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But he denied he was willing to obtain ‘a series of rare and interesting things’ for the shops customers.

Osakuade denied acquiring the other rare animals to sell from Mercyland – the various species later being seized and identified by the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh after an investigation by the Bristol-based Customs and Excise division of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

The trial continues.

ends