A herdsman identified as Abdulrahman Kaila who allegedly cut off a farmer’s hand in the Lakushi community, Shendam Local Government Area of the State, has been arrested by the Plateau State Police Command.
The spokesman for the command, Alabo Alfred who disclosed this in a chat, said that arrangements had been concluded to arraign the suspect in court.
“We have arrested the suspect who chopped off a person’s hand. He is in our custody right now. We were able to arrest him through our intelligence network. So it is not as if he surrendered himself willingly. It is our strategy at play and we won’t disclose it.
“When police got the news, the commissioner of police instructed the DPO to go after the perpetrator, and after a swift reaction by the DPO, the suspect was arrested and he gave us his reason for cutting the hand of the farmer.
“The only thing I can tell you is that investigation has been concluded and the suspect will be charged in court tomorrow (Monday) or next tomorrow (Tuesday)”, he said.
Sources at the command headquarters in Jos on Sunday quoted the suspect as saying during interrogation, “I was grazing when the farmer stopped me and asked me to go back as the area where I was grazing is a rice farm.
“When I got back, he complained that his farm was destroyed by the cattle. I then pushed the cattle and before you know it, we started quarreling. While we were quarreling, I didn’t know how I cut off his hand. I did it out of my wish.”
It would be recalled that a video of the farmer holding his severed right hand with blood dripping on the ground had circulated on social media last week.
He was overheard in the short video telling some men that a Fulani herder cut off his hand because he asked him (herder) to move his cattle out of his farm.
The farmer who was seen bleeding profusely was then advised by the two men to go to the hospital for treatment while they report the incident to the police.
