A civil servant and farmer in the Kastina-Ala Local Government Area of Benue State has been forced to flee his ancestral home and abandon his ready-to-harvest crops after suspected local bandits demanded a N500,000 "levy" before allowing him access to his farmland.

The victim, a resident of Mbagena Council Ward, was forced into hiding despite already paying N200,000 out of the demanded sum to the criminals.

The harrowing incident was brought to light over the weekend by the farmer’s son, John James, a 300-level student at Benue State University (BSU). James spoke out during a capacity-building workshop in Makurdi titled “Promoting Safety and Security Rights, Accountability, and Access to Justice,” organised by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

According to James, the ordeal began two weeks ago when heavily armed men invaded his parents` residence at night, demanding an immediate payment of N500,000.

"My father pleaded with them because he did not have such money at the time," James narrated. "He begged for our lives because we knew that contacting security agencies would only aggravate the situation."

The gunmen initially granted a brief extension to allow the farmer to harvest and sell his cash crops—including groundnut, beniseed, and soybeans—to raise the cash. However, the situation turned violent when the gunmen returned while the farmer was away attending a burial ceremony and abducted his wife, accusing the family of deliberately delaying the payment.

Although she was eventually released after one of the captors reportedly pitied her distress, James revealed she suffered severe physical and psychological trauma. "She was freed but not without being tortured. As I speak, my mother is suffering emotionally and physically from the pain inflicted on her," he said.

Desperate to secure his family`s safety, the farmer raised N200,000 through loans from friends and relatives, delivering the cash to the bandits at midnight last Thursday. Instead of granting him access to his fields, the terrorists rejected the partial payment.

"When my father handed them the money, they said it was not enough. They insisted he must complete the N500,000 before he would be allowed to harvest anything from his farm," James said. Facing continuous death threats, the farmer fled the community, leaving his entire season`s livelihood to rot in the fields.

James further raised an alarm over the identity of the perpetrators, stating they are local criminals known to the villagers. "These people move freely in our vicinity. They are local bandits, and some are well-known to the villagers because they are from the same community."

He lamented that the community has been trapped in a cycle of silence and fear. While local farmers routinely suffer from extortion and asset theft, they are terrified of seeking state protection.

"The villagers hardly report to the police anymore because those who attempted to involve law enforcement in the past were hunted down and killed by the bandits," James alleged.