Tension broke out penultimate Tuesday after two persons were confirmed dead following a clash that broke out between farmers and herders near Passo village in Gwagwalada Area Council.
A resident of the area, who identified himself as Abdullahi, said the incident happened around 2 pm when herders allegedly grazed their cows on a rice farm in the area.
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He said the owner of the rice farm approached the herders to chase out the cows out of the farm and a hot argument ensued between them.
“Part of the rice farm had already been destroyed by the cows and the farmer and the herder resorted to fisticuffs. One of the herders descended on the farmer and inflicted injuries on him with a cutlass,” he said.
He said some natives who got wind of the incident mobilised to the farm to engage the herders, resulting in the death of one of the natives and a herder.
The spokesperson of the FCT Police Command, ASP Mariam Yusuf, did not confirm the incident as she neither picked calls or reply to a text message sent to her phone.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the council, Alhaji Adamu Mustapha, has confirmed the incident, which he condemned strongly.
Mustapha, while speaking at a security meeting at the council’s conference hall yesterday said despite efforts by the council to address incessant cases of farmers-herders clashes, some people are bent on creating tension in the area.
“I have said often times that Fulani and farmers are friends, but as both sides are unwilling to take our advice, the law will now properly take its course,” he said.
The chairman, therefore, urged the security agents to deal decisively with anybody who wants to take laws into his hands .
