THE TUSKY TASK.

"Imagine I can't even travel to visit my family,wife and children!" *Randal says in a rather sad and regretful gesture. He is a victim of what has become the worst of African scandals that is poaching and illegal trade in Ivory.
It was a normal day like any other at his desk when he received a Bill of lading and a packing list he thought was a container full of legal goods. The only intresting thing was how fast the responsible clearing agent wanted the consigned shipped.
As a shipping line officer, Mr Randal did as expected and obviously gave a green light to a consignment that would later land him in trouble. It was to be cleared soonest because the owner was running late and the destination country had no regulations to accept it later than that day.
"The next morning I saw two plain clothes police officers who identified themselves to our staff and asked who Randal was, they pointed to my desk unaware of the looming case that had brought the visitors my way." he adds.
I was hurriedly ordered by the officers to accompany them to the station for a statement on a consignment that had been confiscated by the revenue officials. I was shocked to realize that the documents I had cleared for shipment the previous day was actually Ivory. I was in trouble.
The rest of the lot responsible had earlier been arrested and I was the last to be brought in. It is the most traumatizing thing i have ever encountered in my career as a shipping-line officer. We were held in a tight security cell and got moved into different one later after a few hours. I think we moved into four different remand prisons in a period of two days only. The police were doing their work because this was a high sensitive matter and we were enemies of the state.

I got charged in the law courts and since the investigations were ongoing I managed to secure a bond release which took almost everything out of my account, my parents, my relatives who had to chip in to assist me settle a bill I sincerely knew nothing about.
It hurts me to date because I am still under court orders not to travel anywhere, I can't even visit my family. The worst part of this whole situation is that none amongst the arrested had any positive gains attached, all were victims of crooks sweet talked into literally selling their own heritage by dubious means. Only to expect payment later that was never to come since it landed all in jail.

I now hate everything about poaching and the killings of our wildlife. I want to start a movement against the illegal hunting and killings of elephants for their ivory.I recently saw a live coverage of an elephant drugged and its tusks chopped off when it is still alive. It was sad watching the animal struggle half dead to get up after the molestation.
Randal is still fighting his court case as he prays and hopes that something can eventually be done to stop poaching. He says one elephant dies every 15 minutes and uses the painful slogan "ONE EVERY 15 MINUTES I VORY".
"It has not just caused my family pain and loss of unwarranted money handling bills and legal fees but also caused our government a major loss in terms of wildlife which is a foreign currency earner through tourism.

Author: Roosevelt Benard.
Photography Courtesy ; African Wildlife
Narration done by Randal *Not real characters name.
Disclaimer: This is a true story based on real events. The author due to sensitivity and nature of this story, Decided to stick to the inspirational and motivation parts only ignoring Political and Identity mentions.
A Paree Int'l Production for Wildlife conservation in Africa!!