Suspected herders have hacked a farmer to death and allegedly raped his wife at Paikon Bassa community in Gurdi ward, Abaji Area Council of the FCT.
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.
He said the two children approached the herders and asked them to move their cows out of the farm, which he said resulted to a misunderstanding.
“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 stated.
He claimed that after learning of the fight, the children’s father also rushed in to protect his kids from harm.
“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.
According to Bala, the children fled as soon as they saw their father had collapsed, while some of the herders detained and sexually assaulted the deceased’s wife.
“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 raped,” he said.
“When vigilantes learned about the incident, we actually mobilized to the farm right away, but the herders had already left with their cows, and we are currently tracking them down,” Bala stated.
The farmer’s body had been buried, according to Bala, while the woman was taken to the hospital for treatment.