More details have emerged about how officers of the Customs Service allegedly shot and killed a young man on Wednesday in Abule-Egba area of Lagos State.
According eyewitnesses, the boy, identified as Toheeb Olayiwola, boarded a public bus to convey him to his place of work, but was hit on his head when customs officers fired shots at the bus he boarded.
It was gathered that a commercial bus conveying passengers and food items was stopped by two customs patrol van.
Narrating the incidence, one of the passengers said they were shocked when they were stopped and customs officials immediately opened fire on them.
“We noticed custom vans were following us and the driver stopped. When we stopped, our driver got down to meet them while the passengers were in the bus. Immediately about six of them came down of the van, rounded our bus while we are still in it and they started shooting’’, he recounted the terrible ordeal.
The driver of the commercial bus, Yinka Ajayi also disclosed that the rice he was carrying belonged to a trader who bought them at Sango market and was taking it to Agege Market to sell. He added that the customs van has ‘Nigeria Customs Service, Ikeja Patrol Van’ written on it.
He explained further: “I am a bus driver and I go through Agege to Sango every day. On each trip, I carry people and sometimes traders that buy food materials at Sango market like today. This morning, I was carrying 10 bags of rice and 5 passengers when I noticed that customs were following me. I stopped at Abule Egba and one of the two customs vans came to block me at the front while the other stayed at the back. I was asked what I have in the bus, I told them it is a passenger’s rice which was bought at Sango Market.”
He continued, “As I was still talking to them, some of the custom officers came down and started shooting at my bus with passengers inside the bus. Three people were hit, one of them was hit at the head and he died immediately and others that got wounded have been taken to the hospital. I was also beaten and hit with the butt of a gun. The patrol van has Ikeja Patrol van written on it. One of the customs officers was identified to be ‘Fola’ while another officer is ‘Tunde’.
Baffled as to why he was stopped, the bus driver questioned why Customs would be operating within the local communities. “I am not coming from Seme border, the rice was bought at Sango market, so why should customs be stopping us?”, he asked.
Saheed Olayemi, another bus passenger who was injured in the shootout said the Customs officers fled the scene after discovering that someone had been killed in the bus.
“We were going from Sango to Agege when the customs stopped us. They just started shooting us immediately without allowing us to come down of the bus. I sustained a wound on my neck in the process of running from being hit by a bullet. The customs ran away when they noticed that one of us has been shot in the head and died and passers-by are coming to the scene.” He said.
Muyideen Olayiwola, brother of the deceased who was also at the scene of the incident disclosed that his wife just gave birth.
“I received a call that my brother has been killed by customs, I was shocked because he still spoke to me this morning. His wife just delivered a baby on Saturday and it is unfortunate that this is happening today (Wednesday).”
The body of Toheeb Olayiwola has been taken to the morgue at Ikeja General Hospital.
But, reacting to news that one person died, the Customs Federal Operations Unit, Zone ‘A’ Ikeja, denied report of any casualty.
In a statement issued on the fracas, Public Relations Officer of the Command Mr. Jerry Attah said: On the 17TH of January 2018, 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”
He also said that no life was lost as against the speculations that the driver of the bus died in the process.
“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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