Mr. Adams was attacked while grazing his cattle inside a forest in a small hamlet close to the border of the Ile Oluji community.
Assassins suspected to be cattle rustlers have murdered a renowned cattle merchant identified as Abu Adams in a remote community of Ile Oluji, in Oke Igbo Local Government Area (LGA) of Ondo State, a source has confirmed to SaharaReporters.
The source and a community leader, Pa Joshua Adegbile, who disclosed this to SaharaReporters Media on Thursday, said that Mr. Adams was attacked while grazing his cattle inside a forest in a small hamlet close to the border of the community.
Pa Adegbile, who is very familiar with the late Mr. Adam’s family, disclosed that the murderers also carted away no fewer than ten cattle belonging to the deceased shortly after committing the dastardly act.
He told our correspondent that the victim was a very popular cattle merchant and an indigene of Ilori in Kwara State who had been trading his business in the Oke Igbo community for over six years with his family members.
“After the gruesome murder of Adams inside the farm where he was grazing his cattle, the suspected killers made away with some of those cattle and ran for cover inside the thick forest,” Pa Adegbile told our correspondent.
The community leader further revealed that several sympathizers have been thronging the family house of the deceased since the sad incident occurred in the area.
Several sources also confirmed the incident to SaharaReporters during a visit to the community and claimed that the sad incident had already been reported to the leaders of the Arewa community in the area in order to avoid a bloody clash as sympathizers were calling for reprisal with the natives.
“I just thank God you were not in this community when the incident occurred immediately, as many people, mostly his colleagues in the business, threatened reprisal attacks on those suspected persons.
“Those unidentified killers have no mercy at all. Although we have reported the case to the heads of the Arewa community and I heard the security agencies have been conducting their investigation to unravel the killers of our beloved brother and friend.
“It was really saddening not only to members of the deceased's family but even to us [friends] who had been trading business in this area for a very long time,” one of the sources said.
Hilda Ibifuro-Harrison, the Commissioner for Police in the State who also confirmed the incident to our correspondent, said the Division Police Station in the community has been placed on red alert over the issue.
Ms. Ibifuro-Harrison added that the police had not arrested anyone but assured that officers from the division are on the trail of the assassins believed to be natives of the community.
It was also gathered from locals in the community that the government of Ondo State had also vowed to work with the security agencies in order to fish out the perpetrators of the dastardly act.
Some locals had earlier told SaharaReporters that the community had been under siege in the hands of cattle rustlers who had been threatening the peace of the residents, mostly the rich, in the area.
Police officers have also been deployed to some volatile area in the community in order to forestall any possible reprisal attack as have been threatened by some people in the community.