No fewer than two officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) attached to Ogun State command of the service were on Friday attacked and injured by hoodlums allegedly sponsored by dare devil smugglers.
The officers, who were at Papalanto area of the state, were on a patrol escorting seized smuggled rice from Ilaro.
An eye witness told Shipping Position Daily that the hoodlums were armed with bottles, cutlasses, sticks and other dangerous items.
Meanwhile in a statement signed on Friday by the Command Spokesman, Abdullahi Maiwada, a copy of which was sent to by Shipping Position Daily, he said that it took the intervention of men of the Nigerian Army and Nigerian Police Force to restore normalcy at the scene of the confrontation.
According to him “Officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Ogun Command, while escorting seized smuggled rice from Ilaro navigating to Abeokuta Government Warehouse for safe keeping on Friday at about 0800hours were obstructed by a group of hoodlums who pelted our personnel with stones, bottles, cutlasses, sticks and other dangerous items"
He however said that the affected officers are responding to treatment in an undisclosed hospital.
Maiwada also said that the officers despite the fracas were able to escort the goods to the destination.
“Our Officers restrained themselves by controlling the situation, short of using force. On the arrival of reinforcement teams from Army, Police, Federal Operations Unit and Command teams, the hoodlums were overpowered but not before serious injuries were inflicted on two Customs personnel who are currently responding to treatment in the hospital. In the face of the provocative hostility, Officers tactically succeeded in securing the seizures out of the scene in a professional manner thereby avoiding any loss of life"
“Meanwhile, normalcy has since been restored with the intervention of reinforcement teams from Customs, Police and the Military. Also, the seized items have been secured with three suspects currently undergoing interrogation at the Customs Command Headquarters.
“Nigerians will recall that an officer attached to the Command, Inspector of Custom Abdullahi Kuso was almost lynched at the same location (Papalanto) on 7th July 2018 by a group of criminals who perceive smuggling as a legitimate way of livelihood", he added.
He commended other sister agencies for their quick intervention.
“Finally, we wish to commend the patriotic roles of our sister agencies and law-abiding citizens in assisting the Command to perform its lawful duty of revenue collection and suppression of smuggling in the interest of our dear country. We wish to categorically state that we will continue to prosecute the anti-smuggling crusade in spite of the unwarranted attacks. We want to use this medium to advise parents/guardians to warn their wards to desist from obstructing Customs Officers performing their legitimate duties as the Service will not hesitate to use appropriate force in the interest of the nation”, he said.
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