Steve Agbota
Officers of the Ogun State Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) yesterday allegedly killed a student of Ojomo Community High School, Ihunbo while conveying seized second hand (tokunbo) vehicle.
The school located at Ihunbo town, Ipokia Local Government is a border town between Nigeria and Republic of Benin.
A resident of the town, who spoke with Daily Sun on the condition of anonymity, alleged that the secondary school student was killed while two others were injured.
The resident, who was furious about the incident said: “Customs officers should be mandated to stay at the border and not roaming about the town killing innocent Nigerians.
“The life of an innocent boy has just been cut short by overzealous officers. They should be made to stay at the border and stop killing innocent Nigerians.”
Another resident, Ojo Olumide, lamented: “The youths of Ipokia local government area had an Independence walk and wrote to all security agencies stationed in Ipokia.
“The men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) were informed but they refused to identity with us while all others showed respect and love by joining us even in the rain.
“The CG, Colonel Ali, visited the border and refused to pay homage to the king and also did not listen to the voice of the stakeholders who accommodated them.
“Now daredevil officers had shot down an innocent soul while shooting sporadically,” he said.
The public relations officer of the command, Abdulahi Maiwada, said the incident was an accident.
“We really commiserate with the family of the school pupil. It was so unfortunate that the incident occurred.
“For people not to misconstrue what happened, the Customs’ officers were conveying a tokunbo vehicle and in the process they had an accident.
“It was a collision with an Okada rider conveying some secondary school children. It was not a straight bullet or pursue. It was an accident,” he said.