Thieves have invaded many rice farms and harvested over hundred bags of paddy rice in Taraba State.
City & Crime gathered that the thieves in their numbers, in the mid-night, stormed the farms, located at Shimo Irrigation fields in Lau LGA of the state.
One of the owners of the farms, Abubakar Adamu, told City & Crime that the guard he employed to watch his farm told him that the thieves came in their numbers and were armed with dangerous weapons.
He said all the guards in the farms had to run for their lives.
He said some of the thieves came on foot while others came on motorcycles.
According to him, they came to the farms at about 12.30am and left with bags of rice they harvested around 5.30am in the morning.
Abubakar said that he was hoping to harvest more than 25 bags of paddy but ended up harvesting only 8 bags.
He said, "My guard told me that the thieves were from surrounding villages while others were among those that worked as labourers in our farms."
Another farmer, Mallam Ibrahim Saidu, told our correspondent that it was an organised crime because the thieves came on foot while others came on motorcycles and they were all from the surrounding villages.
He said the thieves were suspected to be from the neighboring villages and many of them worked in the farm as labourers.
"The thieves were envious of the successes recorded by dry season farmers in the area because there was a bumper harvest in the area.
"We hired the farms from the villagers and even engaged some of them as labourers but only for them to come in the night and harvested our farms," he said.
Ibrahim stated that he lost over 30 bags of paddy rice, which at the current market value of the paddy rice, is about N1.3million.
" We couldn't catch anybody but it is clear that the perpetrators were within the neighbourhood and it was a wrong signal, more especially that many of those that farmed in the area were from outside Taraba State.
The state Police Commissioner, David lloyanomon could not be reached for comments on the incident and he did not reply to a text message sent to him by our reporter.
