By Suzan Edeh
BUT for divine intervention, Mr.  Umar Abdullahi, a 53-year-old business man and   farmer who resides in Jaligo village in Bauchi local government, would have been a dead man; he would have died with nobody to tell what actually led to his death. The good news is that he survived and is alive to tell the story of his near-death experience.

Vanguard Metro, VM, investigation reveals that the unfortunate incident that could have sent Umar Abdullahi to his early grave happened on February 4, 2012, when he was working on his farm.

Done with the business of the day, Umar  on that fateful evening left his house for his farm. Apart from being a business man, he engages in farm work in order to provide food for his family and generate more income.

*Umar...on the hospital bed after the attack

A very hardworking man, his ordeal began when two unidentified Fulani herds men approached him to enquire if he had seen one of their animals that was supposedly missing.  Not suspecting any treachery, he told them that he had not seen the animal.

About the time he was getting set to go back to his house, the two strangers came back to him and pretended as if they wanted to help him to put the firewood he had gathered from the farm on his head. But to his shock, one of them suddenly brought out a machete and hit him hard on the head, which made him to lose consciousness.

Apparently believing Umar to be dead, the two Fulani men went on to pluck out one of his eyes and to remove some of his front teeth with a knife.

Fortunately for Umar, a Good Samaritan who resides in the village came across him in the pool of his blood and alerted other people who came and took him to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital in Bauchi.

The brother of the victim, Yakubu Abdullahi, in a chat with Vanguard Metro blamed   lack of security  for the frequent attacks suffered by villagers in the hands of Fulani herdsmen. He informed that most of the Fulanis residing in the bush around the area have lost their source of livelihood, which is cattle rearing.

He said: “Now that they are jobless, without a source of income, they have resorted to terrorising people in the village. Having sold all their cattle,  they are now idle.

Firewood for domestic use

They are now envious of the villagers who are mainly farmers and often attack us while pretending to be looking for their missing cattle. Peradventure there are many people in the bush, they will pass and mind their business, but if it is just one person, they will attack him or even kill him. As a result of this kind of incident, people in the village are scared to go into the bush to fetch firewood for their domestic use”.

Yakubu described his brother as a gentle, good and hardworking person who minds his business and does not have any dispute with  anybody in the village on any land matter, adding that the Fulanis simply dislike the farmers in the village for no just  cause.

He called on relevant authorities in the state to address the issue of insecurity in the area so as to avoid any further attacks by Fulani herds men in the village, saying that if the situation is not addressed, it may lead to reprisal attacks by the villagers.

Yakubu also urged the village heads of  Gilliri, Rundi and Sumi to take urgent measures to forestall any further attacks and fish out the perpetrators, saying that the village heads are aware that Fulanis are residing in their domains.

When Vanguard Metro visited the area, security had been beefed up around the village, while the police were said to have made mass arrest. But relations of the victim appealed to security agents not to arrest people as in doing so innocent people are sometimes wrongly picked up and subjected to torture.

When contacted over the incident, the Bauchi Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Barau, said that the police were aware of the development and are still investigating it and as soon as the culprits are arrested they will be charged to court.