A BRITISH court on Friday jailed two Nigerian nationals convicted of selling banned African delicacies such as monkey and anteater meat from a shop in south London. The judge said the illegal trade was causing the extinction of protected species and that the meat could have been a cause of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak which has ravaged British farms. Mobolaji Osakuade, 40, and his partner Rosie Kinnane, both from Nigeria, were each sentenced to four months in prison by the Old Bailey court in central London. Judge Peter Fingret acknowledged that the ban on bushmeat went against West African culture, but added: “It is clearly for the greater good of society and of our planet that such controls exist and are stringently enforced.” The pair were caught selling protected Tantalus monkeys and giant scaly anteaters which were smuggled in to the country from West Africa. They also traded in whole lions, antelopes, porcupines, goats, cane rats and snails and sold snake and lizard skins for use in traditional ethnic medicines, the court was told. – AFP