Some operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service on Wednesday shot a man to death at the Abule Egba area of Lagos.
The officials had reportedly chased a yellow commercial bus, popularly called Danfo, to the spot and opened fire on it.
It was learnt that the victim identified as Toheeb Olayiwola, was in the bus suspected to be carrying smuggled bags of rice.
The officials were said to have fled the scene after shooting the man in the head.
Angry youths made bonfires on the road in protest but were later dispersed by policemen.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Chike Oti, confirmed the killing.
An eyewitness, Ahmed Ogundairo, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the victim was in the bus with registration number LND685XJ coming from Sango and headed toward Lagos.
Ogundairo said that customs men accosted the bus at Abule Egba and started shooting sporadically which resulted to the victim’s death.
“The commercial bus, which was loaded with bags of rice, was en-route Mushin from Sango when the customs stopped the bus and started shooting.
“My friend was inside the bus to assist in offloading the rice but he was shot dead when he tried to escape from the scene.
“The bus was hired to deliver the rice to Mushin,’’ he said.
Another eyewitness, who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the victim was not a smuggler ,but a transporter with a commercial bus.
But in a swift reaction, Image maker of the command, Attah Jerome in a press release obtained by Shipping Position Daily denied the incident.
Giving the Customs side of the story, he said the officers were acting on a tip off about an LT bus conveying several bags of smuggled rice and they had chased the driver to Abule Egba area.
"On the 17TH of January 2018 (today), at about 0530hrs, Operatives of the Federal Operations Unit acting on a tip-off traced one LT Bus Loaded with unspecified bags of smuggled foreign parboiled rice from Sango Area and eventually stopped it at Abule Egba"
"Before he was finally halted at Abule Egba, the driver started shouting and making inciting comments that attracted mob action against the officers with different dangerous weapons such as broken bottles, stones and cutlasses. Obviously, he had driven to where he could get his associates to help attack the Customs Officers"
"Given support of the mob, he resisted lawful arrest and the other armed operatives fired shots in the air to disperse the raging mob but to no avail. As a responsible organization, the Officers retracted back to avoid any casualty. We appreciate and thank God that no life was lost as at the time of the confrontation even though two of our Officers sustained injuries"
"For the avoidance of doubt, the fact that a smuggler has evaded scrutiny either by following unapproved route or compromising any Officer does not guarantee that the smuggled item will not be seized anywhere it is found by patrol officers whose duty is to ensure compliance", he said.
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