On the morning of October 23, 2025, Gbolahan Olaniyi was settling into what seemed like another routine day on the farm he manages at Oke Ako Village at Ikole Local Government, Ekiti State, southwestern Nigeria.
From his small office, he worked through reports from the previous day’s harvest while, outside, more than 250 hectares of maize, soybeans and cassava stretched toward the horizon. Workers moved across the fields, tractors rumbled along dusty tracks, as the harvest season was in full swing.
Then a tractor operator failed to return.
At first, it seemed like a minor delay. Olaniyi tried calling him, but the call would not connect. Concerned, he climbed onto his office-assigned motorcycle and headed into the fields to find out.
What he found was unsettling. The tractor stood at an odd angle, half-turned into the bush, as though it had been abandoned in a hurry. Olaniyi got off his bike, picked up a cutlass, and walked toward it. He called the driver’s name once. Then again.
