Fatal machete attack in Delta stemmed from extortion dispute with herdsman, man clarifies

Kokori, Delta – A local man identified as Dafe was fatally attacked with a machete in Kokori community, Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State, after allegedly attempting to extort an informal passage fee from Fulani herdsmen passing through his farmland.

According to a detailed clarification posted on X by @MrWakajugbe, who originally shared a graphic video of the inciden posted, "Two days ago, this guy who's now dead named Dafe, saw a Fulani herdsman carrying his cows past his farmland and he used power to make the Fulani guy pay deve. Yesterday, the same Fulani man came with his cows but this time he was with another Fulani guy and met the same Mr Dafe again who tried to obtain them again by trick and when they refused to pay, he pursued them with a machete. The first Fulani guy hid somewhere whilst his brother ran away and when Dafe returned back to his farm, the Fulani guy attacked him and butchered him."

@MrWakajugbe added that Dafe succumbed to his injuries following the ambush.

The video, which shows Dafe seated and drenched in blood with multiple deep cuts to his head, face, neck, chest, and arms, many appearing to be defensive wounds, initially circulated with a caption blaming Fulani herdsmen for an unprovoked attack: "Just look at what Fulani herdsmen did to this guy in Kokori These boys are terrorists ."

This initial narrative quickly fueled outrage on social media, amplifying longstanding tensions over farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria's southern and Middle Belt regions.

Hours later, however, @MrWakajugbe issued the follow-up post, stating he had learned "the real gist" and providing the account of an escalating dispute over the informal "deve" fee common in some rural areas where locals demand payments from nomadic herders for cattle passage.

Several other users reposted the video with similar initial accusations against Fulani herdsmen, but no widespread acknowledgment of the correction was observed as of this report.

The incident remains unverified by independent sources. No statements have been issued by Delta State Police Command or local authorities regarding an investigation, arrests, or confirmation of the events.

This case illustrates the volatile dynamics in rural Nigerian communities, where disputes over land access, grazing routes, and informal tolls can rapidly turn deadly, often complicated by rapid spread of unverified information on social media.