A Fulani herdsman, Adamu Ibrahim, has been arrested for the rape and murderof two sisters in Zongo Village, Benue State.

A third girl, Jirgba Nyeshilea, who is only 14 years old, just managed to escape from the sex-crazed Adamu and his partners in crime, but with severe machete wounds all over her body.

Jirgba narrated how her sisters were killed by Adamu to shocked residents:

.....We had gone to the bush to fetch firewood and while in the bush, we met the suspect, a Fulani herdsman, who asked if we saw any man passing by. We told him that we did not see anybody, he then asked us to follow him. We were forced to follow him out of fear, we trekked with him to a point where we saw another two of his colleagues. That was where they all asked us to lie down. But we were scared.


....They eventually forced my two sisters down and two of the men raped them, but they did not rape me. After raping them, they started cutting them with their knives until they killedthem. At that point, I started running and shouting for help, but one of them came after me and cut me with a knife and I fell down.

I passed out for sometime and in my pool of blood, they thought I was dead, but luckily, when they left, I gathered myself and managed to escape back to the village. That was how I found myself at the hospital.

But Adamu, 20, who is currently in police cell, denied raping the girls but narrated that he killed the girls out of anger. He confessed that he was high on drugs called Tramol 200 and was not in control of his senses when he committed the heinous crime.

(Hear him)

;I was in the bush grazing my cows when a Tiv man approached me claiming that I damaged his farm. I told him I was not the one and he insisted I was the one. In the midst of the argument and confusion, my herds scattered in the bush.


I started chasing after them in order to gather them. On my way, I met three girls whom I asked if they knew the man that was accusing me of destroying his farm and they said yes.


They, however, refused to disclose the man’s residence, claiming that they did not know his house. The eldest amongst the girls started insulting me and she came and held my cutlass. I told her to get off my cutlass. She continued pulling the cutlass. The second one came and started taunting me and pulling my dagger and in the process, the knife cut her hand.


I withdrew from them and asked if they can face me and they said yes. That was why I pulled out my knife and cut the eldest. The other one that had a cut on her hand ran and moved away and was watching from a distance, but I also caught up with her and cut her down. I also did the same thing to the third.


Adamu however denies raping the girls:


No other Fulani herdsman was there, I did it alone. I swear that I did not rape them. They pushed me into what I did because I was pleading and asking that they left me alone. I feel very sorry for what I did, because it is a crime.


I was actually under the influence of Tramol 200. I normally buy the tablet from one Tiv man in the village. I take it to feel high and for energy because whenever I take it, I hardly get tired of moving about with my cow.