CITY NEWS Court jails man 2 Farmer arrests cow on farm at Abaji months for stealing church property
Amiddle aged farmer, simply identified as Elder Samson, arrested a cow and tied it down for allegedly destroying crops on his farm at Sabon- Gari village in Abaji Area Council.
A resident of the area, Yahaya Aliyu, said the incident happened on Wednesday morning when the farmer met cows eating some of the yams he had already planted on ridges.
He said the farmer arrived his farm at about 9:00a.m.and saw a herder removing the already planted yams from the ridges and giving them to his cows.
“When the herder saw the farmer coming, he escaped and the farmer arrested one of the cows and tied it up, got a pick up van which took the cow to the council secretariat,” he said.
Our reporter learnt that a similar incident happened last two weeks, when another farmer arrested two cows and took them to police station for allegedly destroying crops on his farm at Pandagi village of the council.
Reacting, the secretary of the council, Alhaji Kamal Adamu Shuaibu, who also confirmed the incident, regretted that despite the council chairman’s efforts at addressing cases involving farmers and herdsmen clashes in the area, some herdsmen were still bent on invading people’s farms at night to destroy crops.
“In fact, just barely two weeks ago, the chief of Rumba called me to come and see how cassava was uprooted by some suspected herders. But as the chairman of the committee, we will not relent in our efforts to address the issue,” he said.
The Ardo of Fulani in the area, Suleiman Ibrahim, could not be reached for reaction, as his phone was not connecting.
When contacted, the Abaji Divisional Police Officer (DPO), CSP David Kolo, confirmed the incident, saying the arrested cow has been brought to the police and was still waiting for the owner to come forward to claim it.
“And I have directed my men to go to the farm to see the extent of damage the farmer claimed, before we will know the next step to take,” he said.
The DPO added that a similar incident happened recently when a farmer arrested two cows and brought them to the police station after the cows destroyed his crops.
“And we have been able to get a court judgment on those two cows which are still at the police station. The court had ordered that since nobody came to claim ownership of the cows, they should be sold out and the money be used in compensating the affected farmer,” the DPO added. A 29-year-old man, Ricab Vondip,has been jailed two months by a Karmo Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja, for stealing musical keyboard valued at N400, 000 from a church.
The convict who was arraigned on a count charge of theft pleaded guilty to the charge.
He begged the court to have mercy on him and promised not to commit crime again.
The judge, Mr Abubakar Sadiq, who convicted Vondip, however, gave him an option of N10, 000 fine, and warned him to desist from committing further crime.
The prosecutor, Dalhatu Zannah, had told the court that Vondip committed the offence on December 24, 2016 at the Salem Church, Utako, Abuja.
He said that Pastor Joel Madaki of Salem Church Abuja, reported the matter at the Utako Police Station on March 8.
Zannah said Vondip was invited by his friend James Silas to attend a church service, but he stole the church’s Yamaha keyboard.
The prosecutor said that the convict was arrested and he confessed to have sold the keyboard at N 24,000.
Zannah said that the keyboard was yet to be recovered
He said the offence contravened Section 287 of the Penal Code. (NAN)