Farmers worry as villagers resort to stealing maize to survive in Abuja

Farmers in the rural communities of the FCT are lamenting the spate of theft of maize by suspected thieves in their farms.

Some farmers, who spoke to our reporter on Tuesday, said people now sneaked into their farms at night to steal maize in large quantities.

A farmer, who is a resident of Gyedna village in Kuje Area Council, Mr Ayuba Daniel, said people invaded his farm on Sunday and stole a large quantity of maize.

“On Sundays, I don’t go to the farm not until yesterday, that is Monday, when I went with my children to harvest some corn and discovered that some of them have been removed already,” he said.

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He added, “In fact, I also discovered were they even made a fire and roasted maize under a tree inside the farm, before packing the remaining home.”

Daniel, who attributed such act to hunger and hardship in the country, added that “but what pains most is the harvesting of large quantity of the maize because everybody knows how maize is expensive in the market now.”

Another farmer, a resident of Machada village in Gwagwalada Area Council, Ilyasu Musa, also lamented that his maize was harvested by thieves at the weekend.

He said his farm, which is located along Yimi-Machada road, was harvested and a large quantity of maize stolen, adding that the hoodlums invaded the farm at night.

“Just recently, two young boys were arrested by vigilantes when they entered my neighbour’s farm and harvested corn which they packed inside sacks. They were caught when they were about to go with them on a motorcycle,” he said.

He said many farmers along the area have been facing similar challenges of maize theft by hoodlums who mostly come with sacks on motorcycles to harvest corn during the night.

Mr Ibrahim Danladi, another farmer in Abaji Area Council, also expressed concern over the manner at which people steal maize from farms in the area.

Danladi told City & Crime that the thieves also invaded his farm behind Abuja University of Science and Technology two weeks ago and harvested his corn in large quantities.

Community leaders in some of the affected areas attributed the incidents to hardship in the country, saying prices of foodstuffs are beyond the reach of many people.