Of recent, there have been a resurgence of attacks on Customs officers, leading to some fatalities. The most recent incident occurred on August 24, 2023, while customs officers of the Kebbi Area Command were on a stop-and-search operation.
Reports confirmed that, the attackers who drove in an ash-colored Toyota Corolla vehicle confronted them with heavy gunfire. After the encounter, two Customs officers; Inspector of Customs, Alhaji Kabiru Shehu and Customs Assistant II, Abdullahi Muhammad, lost their lives.
Coincidentally, the previous day, that is on August 23, in the Dankama Area of Katsina State, officers from the Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘B’ (FOU ‘B’) who were on a patrol were attacked by suspected smugglers. One of the operatives was seriously injured.
The recent resurgence of attacks is shocking, because the last time it came in torrents like this was in 2016. And by November of that year, the Nigeria Customs Service had lost a total of 70 officers to attacks by smugglers, host communities.
The then-National Public Relations Officer of the service, Mr Wale Adeniyi (who is now the Customs Boss) while giving a detail account of how the Customs personnel died, explained that the officers are often attacked in the course of performing their legitimate duties.
However, investigations carried out by Shipping Position Daily confirmed that apart from the recent attacks in the northern part of Nigeria, there have been many in the southern part too.
In this year alone, there have scores of fatalities and life-threatening injuries on the part of personnel of the service in different parts of the country.
Sadly, the attackers who are smugglers and their border community cohorts often confront officers in the course of their legitimate duties.
Suffice it to stress that, among other statutory roles, the Nigeria Customs Service is saddled with the responsibility of ascertaining the correctness of imported and goods to be exported.
This is no doubt, a security and economic duty, which calls for the support of border communities, because it has been confirmed that there are well over 1000 illegal routes leading into and out of Nigeria. The legal ones are manned by the Nigeria Customs Service, but the illegal ones are the theatre of confrontation between officers, smugglers and resident of border communities.
Apparently buck-passing on the frequent face-off between officers and inhabitants of border communities, the service has often accused the border communities of aiding and abetting smuggling.
From the perspective of the Customs leadership, members of the border communities are complicit by protecting the smugglers, attacking and killing NCS officers.
We recall that, at a forum at the National Assembly to defend the 2021 budget of the Customs Service, the then-Comptroller General of Customs, retired Colonel Hameed Ali pointedly said: “But we cannot effectively police borders. We can only make efforts through the third tier to curtail smuggling. We need other agencies and the communities to help us. Until that is done, Customs is willing to do what it can to stop that.”
What that statement simply meant was that, personnel of the Customs are overwhelmed in tackling smuggling, and are blaming members of border communities for the menace.
The truth also is that, Customs officers are in the front line of attack, and they are bound to also defend themselves in the face of attempts on their lives.
We are quite aware that, officers are often at the risk of attacks by smugglers and their cohorts. We know that some officers have been maimed, while some were killed in face-offs with smugglers.
We are however in awe as to why there is always a huge cry whenever smugglers and their collaborators are killed by Customs officers; either in self-defence or in the pursuit of smugglers.
Some have argued that, Customs officers are only mandated by the law to arrest and arraign smugglers in their pursuit to protect national integrity. They also argued that, it is not part of their mandate to pursue smugglers to the town and must not shoot indiscriminately.
Yes, the extra-judicial killings are unacceptable. Yes, there is no justification on the part of Customs officers to shoot at defence-less and unarmed border residents and even smugglers.
We are perturbed at the disturbing silence that often greet attacks on Customs officers. The National Assembly members who take advantage of their positions as lawmakers to condemn Customs and even use their office to elicit the legislature to lampoon the NCS, are often quiet when the table turns.
The Civil Society groups have also been quiet in the face of attacks and killing of Customs officers.
Yes, it is so easy to summon the headship of the Nigeria Customs Service to the National Assembly each time Nigerians are killed by Customs officers; mostly in self defence. But until recently, when an adhoc committee was set up to investigate the killings, it has always been mum each time officers are attacked and killed in the line of duty.
We stand with the Nigeria Customs to say that Customs Officers’ lives also matter!
