Terror herdsmen kill farmer, rape wife in FCT community

Criminals suspected to be herdsmen have killed a farmer and allegedly raped his wife at Paikon Bassa community in Gurdi ward, Abaji Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory.

A resident of Gurdi, identified as Wokili Bala, said the incident happened on Saturday, January 11, 2025, around 11:23am when the herders invaded a guinea corn farm with their cows.

He said the deceased farmer alongside his wife and two of their children were harvesting corn when the cows belonging to the herders entered the farm eating up guinea corn.

Mr. Bala said the two children approached the herders and asked them to move their cows out of the farm, which he said resulted in a serious face-off.

“As the man’s children were quarrelling with the herders for moving their cows into the farm to eat up the guinea corn, trouble now broke loose, and one of the herders pulled out a machete,” he said.

According to him, the father of the children upon discovering the altercation also waded in to save his children from being attacked.

“It was in the process of the farmer trying to defend his children that one of the herders pulled out a machete and stabbed him on the head,” Bala said.

Bala further revealed that the children upon discovering their father had fallen to the ground, quickly escaped while some of the herders trapped the deceased’s wife and raped her.

“Before the man’s children returned from the house after they went to report the incident, the man had already given up while the woman had been r3ped,” he said.

Bala said the corpse of the farmer had been buried while the woman was taken to the hospital for medical attention.

According to Daily Trust, the herders were migrating from neighbouring Zago village in Lapai area of Niger State to another community when they went into the farm with their cows.

“Actually, when vigilantes received information about the incident, we quickly mobilised to the farm but the herders had fled with their cows but we are tracing their location,” Bala said.

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