One killed, many injured in Customs, smugglers clash

At least one person was confirmed dead and many others seriously injured yesterday when men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Ogun State Command, engaged suspected smugglers in a shoot-out on the busy Ota-Idi Iroko road, Ogun State.  The Ogun NCS command is under the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, Ikeja, which oversees Customs […]

At least one person was confirmed dead and many others seriously injured yesterday when men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Ogun State Command, engaged suspected smugglers in a shoot-out on the busy Ota-Idi Iroko road, Ogun State.

 The Ogun NCS command is under the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, Ikeja, which oversees Customs operations in Lagos and Ogun states.

The clash resulted in a pandemonium within the axis as commercial activities and vehicular traffic were paralysed for several hours.

A witness said crisis erupted when the Customs men opened fire and killed a suspected smuggler identified as Sherif at Ola junction, Onibuku bus stop along the border road.

The witness explained that a team of NCS officers were chasing the suspected smugglers for what they believed was illegal importation of rice, vegetable oil and other goods from the Idi-Iroko border. 

Following the killing, there was a mob action as youths went on rampage, setting the Customs team’s Hilux van and the NCS office along the Idi-Iroko road ablaze.

The mob also allegedly wounded some Customs officers, who were said could have possibly been killed but for protection from a combined team of the Nigerian Navy and mobile policemen which raced to the scene.

The NCS Ogun State command’s Public Relations Officer, Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada, told Eko Trust that trouble started when the Customs officials intercepted the suspected smugglers with some smuggled products but the suspects, resisting arrest, launched an attack on the officials.

Maiwada said, “We intercepted a Mazda vehicle with registration number KTU 504 AN carrying 45 bags of smuggled rice, and also a Passat vehicle loaded with 28 cartons of smuggled turkey.”

The command spokesman added that but in a reprisal attack, the suspected smugglers mobilised themselves and embarked on destroying a Customs official vehicle, which they allegedly set ablaze, and also destroyed the NCS command post at the Atan junction on Idi-Iroko road. 

But the mob, said to comprise mostly youths armed with guns, cutlasses, clubs and charms, was said to have taken to violence on the grouse that many of the alleged killings they accused Customs officials of perpetrating were unproven. A witness said that the mob, shouting ‘enough is enough’ called on the Federal Government to end the killing of people not confirmed to be smugglers.

 Fatai Omoniyi, Secretary of the Taxi Drivers Union in the area, told Eko Trust that he woke up to see armed youths, in their dozens, chanting war songs.

Omoniyi said, “When I tried to find out what was wrong, I was told that someone was shot dead by some Customs men who were chasing smugglers in the area. They said that the incident happened around 3:00a.m. on Tuesday. Some of the youths later regrouped around 7:00a.m. They blocked the road with logs of wood. Some of them even made bonfire in the middle of the road. In order not to get involved in the crisis, we told our men to stay away from the road until normalcy returns.”

He said they were told that the Customs men went away with bags of rice and poultry products loaded in four vehicles which they seized from some smugglers.

“I think that the youths came to reclaim the seized items but before they arrived the Customs men had left. What prompted them to regroup was that they heard that one of the seized vehicles developed a problem on the road and that the Customs men were trying to fix it. Unknown to them, the Customs officials had called for a back-up.

 “The victim must have been killed in a shoot-out with the security men. I did not see any dead body when we came this morning, but we were told that someone died during the shoot-out,” he added.

 Another witness, Seun Tope, a filling station attendant at one of the fuel stations close to the scene, recalled that he and his co-workers at the station had to hastily close shop as the armed hoodlums took to the road, looting people’s property and smashing vehicles’ windscreen.

Tope said, “They took to their heels when they saw military men and mobile policemen approaching the spot.”

The Public Relations Officer (PRO), of the FOU, Zone A, Ikeja, Jerry Attah, an Assistant Superintendent of Customs, however, debunked any killing. Attah said some smugglers ambushed some Customs operatives “who were in the area to carry out their lawful duty.”

He said that the team had gotten information that some smugglers were in the habit of bringing contraband items through the area into Nigeria.

According to him, based on the strength of the information, the team mounted surveillance in the area.

 He said, “The surveillance work paid off early Tuesday morning when they sighted some smugglers attempting to bring in contraband times into the country. The team went after the fleeing smugglers who abandoned three of their vehicles fully loaded with foreign poultry products and bags of rice. 

“The team recovered the vehicles, but on their way to the Unit’s headquarters, one of the vehicles, a Mazda, developed a minor fault. The hoodlums, who got wind of this, tried to attack the Customs men but they were repelled. The team fired some shots into the air and not at the approaching hoodlums. They took to their heels and the three vehicles and the exhibits were brought to the headquarters.

“Nobody was killed and nobody was injured. It is instructive to say that the hoodlums are always in the habit of saying that someone was killed any time their consignments are seized. It was the hoodlums who laid ambush against the Customs men but were repelled.

 “There was no shoot-out with anybody. Our men have no cause to shoot anybody. They are well-trained and operate according to international best practices. The police have been invited and we are on top of the situation. The matter is under investigation by the Customs and the police. After a thorough investigation, we will give you full details of what happened.”

The account of the Police Public Relations Officer, Ogun State Command, Assistant Superintendent of Police Bimbola Oyeyemi, however, contradicted Attah’s insistence that nobody died in the incident.

 According to Oyeyemi, who confirmed the incident in a phone chat with our correspondent, a suspected smuggler was killed during a gun duel. The police spokesman said the Customs operatives had intercepted some smugglers.

“The smugglers, however, resisted arrest and opened fire and in the exchange, the yet-to- be identified man was killed,” he said, adding that the police had restored peace in the area and prevented loss of innocent lives.