Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
A farmer in Katsina-Ala Local Government Area of Benue State has been forced to abandon his farm and flee his community after suspected bandits demanded N500,000 as a condition for allowing him to harvest his crops, in a harrowing ordeal that has laid bare the deepening grip of criminality on rural livelihoods across Nigeria's food belt. The farmer, whose identity has not been disclosed for security reasons, is a resident of Mbagena Council Ward in Katsina-Ala LGA, where suspected local bandits have allegedly been terrorising residents and imposing ransom demands on members of the community. His son, John James, a 300-level student of Benue State University, narrated his family's nightmare at a capacity-building workshop on Promoting Safety and Security Rights, Accountability and Access to Justice, organised by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) in Makurdi.
According to James, his father, who combines farming with public service, was attacked in his home about two weeks ago by suspected bandits who demanded a N500,000 ransom. The attackers initially gave him three days to raise the money but later extended the deadline to one week after he explained that he could not immediately raise the amount because he had not yet harvested his farm produce. James said his father had returned home to harvest his groundnut, beniseed, soyabean and other crops in order to generate income to meet the ransom demand. "About two weeks ago, terrorists invaded his compound in the night where he was sleeping alongside my mother after work. They charged him to pay a ransom of N500,000. My father pleaded with them because there was nothing at the moment. He had to plead with them for our lives because contacting the security will only worsen the situation," James recounted.
While his father was struggling to raise the money, the attackers returned to the house and abducted his mother, accusing the farmer of deliberately delaying payment. James said his father was away attending a burial ceremony near Katsina-Ala town when the attackers arrived and took his mother away. She was later released after one of the abductors pleaded that she should be freed because she was crying and visibly distressed. "She was freed but not without being tortured. As I talk to you now, my mother is suffering emotionally and physically from the pains she suffered in the course of the torture," James said. According to him, his father eventually rallied friends and relatives and raised N200,000, which he delivered to the bandits at midnight on Thursday.
But the payment brought only partial relief. James said the bandits allowed his father to harvest only some of his crops, insisting that he must pay the balance of N300,000 before he could return to the farm and harvest the remaining produce. "When my father returned and handed them the money, they said it was not enough, that he had to complete it to N500,000 before he would be allowed to harvest anything from his farm," James said. The continued threats have forced his father to flee the area, leaving his crops at the mercy of the bandits. "They are still threatening my father for the remaining amount, and he is on the run for fear of the unknown. He can't go back to harvest everything now until he gets all the money," James added.
James lamented that the suspected bandits are allegedly moving freely within the community, with some of them reportedly known to residents. "These people are moving freely in our vicinity, and they are local bandits. In fact, some of them are known to the villagers because they are from the same community," he said. He further revealed that his father's experience was not an isolated incident. "Other villagers suffer a similar fate regularly. However, it's the first time my father has been charged a ransom for harvest. But he had been attacked several times where his money and goods were carted away," James said. James added that villagers were reluctant to report to police as those who did were killed by the bandits.
The farmer's ordeal highlights a disturbing new dimension in the criminal exploitation of rural communities in Benue State, where bandits have moved beyond kidnapping for ransom to imposing direct levies on agricultural production itself. By demanding payment before harvest, the criminals are effectively taxing the very livelihoods that sustain the region, forcing farmers to choose between abandoning their crops or feeding a system of extortion that shows no signs of abating. The case also underscores the growing climate of impunity in Katsina-Ala LGA, where bandits operate with apparent freedom, known to their victims and moving openly within communities that have lost faith in the ability of security agencies to protect them.
For the farmer of Mbagena Council Ward, the path forward is uncertain. His crops remain in the field, vulnerable to the elements and to the very criminals who have driven him from his home. The N200,000 he has already paid represents a significant portion of his earnings, and the N300,000 still demanded threatens to wipe out whatever profit he might have hoped to make from this season's harvest. His wife bears the physical and emotional scars of her abduction and torture, and his family lives in fear of what the bandits might do next. As James told the SERAP workshop, his father's story is not unique. It is a glimpse into a crisis that is slowly strangling the agricultural heartland of Nigeria, one farm, one family, one harvest at a time.
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