From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
THE corpse of a suspected Fulani herdsman identified as Haruna Mohammed has been found in a fish pond at Emu-Ebendo community in Ndokwa West Local Government Area of Delta State.
He was allegedly killed at the Christmas weekend by suspected cattle rustlers who pegged his corpse with sticks at the fish pond to prevent it from floating to the top of the water.
Besides killing the herdsman, the assailants slaughtered two of his cows in a bush behind an uncompleted petrol station in the community, according to a community source.
The source the herdsman was shot dead as he was trying to flee from his assailants who had earlier opened fire at the herd of cows, explaining that two herdsmen had gone out for grazing earlier in the day.
“They were two herdsmen that took the cows into the bush for grazing when the hoodlums suddenly accosted them and shot two of the cows. The herdsmen then ran away to different directions while their cows scattered into the bush.
“After some hours, one of the herdsmen returned to the bush and could not find his colleague but he felt he may have gone to take refuge somewhere in the neighbourhood. He also noticed that two of the cows had been killed.
“Throughout that day, which was on Friday before the Christmas, his colleague did not return home, so the next day (Saturday) he went to the police station at Abbi to report that his friend was missing.
“The police now followed him into the bush and started looking for the missing herdsman. After searching for him for a while, they found his corpse that has been inflicted with gunshot injuries in a pond. The corpse was pegged with some sticks in the pond to prevent it from floating to the top of the water.