A video of the incident seen by SaharaReporters on Friday shows a middle-aged man whose name was yet to be ascertained holding his severed hand.
The Plateau State Command of the Nigerian Police Force has said it arrested a herdsman identified as Abdulrahman Kaila for cutting off a farmer's hand in the Lakushi community in the Shendam council area of the state.
A video of the incident seen by SaharaReporters on Friday shows a middle-aged man whose name was yet to be ascertained holding his severed hand.
He is overheard in the video telling some men that a Fulani herder cut off his hand because he asked him (herder) to move his cattle out of his farm.
The farmer who was seen bleeding profusely was then advised by the two men to go to the hospital for treatment while they report the incident to the police.
Meanwhile, an Intelligence gathering organisation, Eons Intelligence, disclosed on Friday that the herder had been arrested by the police.
The organisation which took to its Twitter handle to announce the arrest, gave the name of the victim as Jeremiah Yan.
The organisation wrote: "The operatives of Plateau State Police Command on 17th August 2023 arrested one Abdulrahman Kaila, a herder over cutting off a farmer's hand on his farmland in Lakushi community, Shendam LGA, Plateau State.
"The information available indicated that the suspect had an altercation with the victim, Jeremiah Yan, on the issue of grazing cattle on his rice farming which resulted in cutting Jeremiah Yan's hand on his farmland."
The spokesperson for the state police command l, DSP Alfred Alabi confirmed the arrest to SaharaReporters on Friday.
"Investigation has been concluded and the suspect will be charged in court soon.
“When police got the news, the commissioner of police instructed the DPO to go after the perpetrator, and after a swift reaction by the DPO, the suspect was arrested and he gave us his reason for cutting the hand of the farmer,” Alabi said.
He quoted the suspect to have said during interrogation: “I was grazing when the farmer stopped me and asked me to go back as the area where I was grazing is a rice farm.
"When I got back, he complained that his farm was destroyed by the cattle. I then pushed the cattle and before you know it, we started quarrelling. While we were quarrelling, I didn’t know how I cut off his hand. I did it out of my wish.”