Job Osazuwa
There have been bitter reactions to the killing of an innocent Nigerian by an official of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). A video footage of the killing of the unarmed civilian has gone viral on the social media.
All commentators on the issue have unanimously lambasted the officials involved in the incident, which occurred on Sunday in Sagamu, along the Lagos-Ore-Benin Expressway, and accused them of using their rifles to intimidate commuters and motorists.
In the video, several commuters were seen arguing with Customs officials, with several other commuters from other vehicles watching. A passenger was heard warning an official not to touch his phone, while some others were arguing with another official.
As the argument continued, a voice was heard saying, “shoot him” and a gun went off. The sound of the gunshot appeared to have caused some of the people at the scene to flee, while some others repeatedly shouted in Pidgin English that the Customs officials had killed someone.
While the video did not capture the officer who pulled the trigger, it showed one of the personnel clutching a gun standing over the body of the man who had been shot. After lifting the man’s hand and seeing it fall limply to the ground, the official and his colleagues tried to get back into their vehicle, but the civilians at the scene rallied and prevented them from leaving.
“Customs don kill person because of N5,000! Una no dey go today! Una go kill everybody today,” a lady and others wailed in Pidgin English.
The officials were alleged to have stopped a driver of the bus travelling from Lagos to Benin over alleged contraband goods in the bus. The argument later escalated and led to the killing of one Godwin Onoja, who was not a passenger in any of the intercepted vehicles.
As gathered, Onoja was shot during an altercation between the Customs personnel and some travellers, who boarded Iyare Motors.
One of the passengers, Mr. Oliver Joseph, who lives in France, has narrated how he and the other passengers in the bus arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, on Saturday evening and left the next morning with the Iyare Motors bus.
Joseph stated that when they got to the Sagamu intersection of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, some Customs officials asked the driver to stop.
“Immediately the driver parked, one of the officers came and asked who owned the luggage, the driver told him they were for us. The Customs officer asked us where we were coming from and we told him that we were coming from overseas and for a visit. He said he needed to check the luggage one by one. We told him that they had been checked at the airport but he insisted that he must carry out his job and ordered us to alight from the bus.
“One of them then called the driver and asked him to give them N5,000 for them to allow us to go. We heard the driver saying that he did not have the money and that we did not have anything illegal. We eventually agreed that our luggage be searched and one of us insisted that he would record it so that they won’t place contraband in our bags.”
He said while the argument was on, the officer took some steps back, cocked his gun and fired it, which hit Onoja.
The manager of Iyare Motors, Benin City, Mr. Aghimien Osahon, has expressed gratitude to God that none of the passengers lost their lives in the fracas.
He corroborated the passengers’ account that the Customs officers were angered by the driver’s refusal to give them N5,000.
In reaction, the public relations officer of the NCS, Mr. Joseph Attah, has described the incident as unfortunate. He said that the victim was not one of the passengers, but a friend to the Customs men.
Attah said that the victim stayed in the neighbourhood and supplied water to the Customs base on the road. He said the victim walked in during an altercation between the passengers and the operatives.
He accused the driver and passengers of preventing the operatives from conducting routine checks, saying they cursed the operatives and called them thieves. He said the gun accidentally went off while the passengers were struggling to disarm an officer.
The Ogun State police public relations officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said that the operatives of the command were able to rescue the Customs officer from being lynched by the angry mob. He said that the case would be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Eleweran, Abeokuta.
A concerned Nigerian, Mr. Adebisi Oladele, in a telephone interview with the reporter, described the statement by Attah, the Customs spokesman, as hogwash, shameful and unpatriotic. He asked all-well meaning Nigerians to unite and condemn the act.
According to him, attention should not be shifted from the fact that a Nigerian, an innocent person, was gunned down as a result of the officials’ high-handedness. He said most frustrated and bitter corrupt security agents usually unleash violence on innocent citizens, and such people don’t deserve to be in the service if they cannot handle non-life threatening arguments without pulling the trigger.
“When l travelled to Ore in Ondo State sometime in June 2018, the vehicle I boarded was raided by these men. Two of them, cocking their guns at us, jumped into our vehicle even after the driver had quietly cleared off the road as he was ordered to do. When I asked them not to throw caution to the wind and not to see every driver on the road as a criminal, one of them commanded me to shut up. He said that I was rude for challenging an officer on duty. He continued that I was not to teach him how to discharge his duties,” Oladele said.
Another angry Nigerian, Izevbokun Ighogho, said: “I have carefully watched the videos. At no point did the passengers try to disarm the officers as they want us to believe. Rather, it was the officers that were struggling to stop the filming of the scene.
“Why will Customs officers block roads in the name of beaming a searchlight on contraband goods? According to them, they suspected there were used clothes in the vehicle. If we are to believe their story, it was their colleagues at the ports and borders that cleared the clothes. It is regrettable that the Nigerian government overlooks so many things at the expense of the common man.”
When the reporter visited a supervisor at one of the transportation companies in Lagos that plied the Lagos-South South route, he described the Customs shooting as one too many. He called on the authorities to quickly look into the operations of the NCS, saying that ordinary Nigerians who were going about their legitimate businesses were at the receiving end of incessant harassment.
“I must say that it was because the passengers summoned the courage to video what transpired that the world got to know about it. Many souls had been wasted and the matter swept under the carpet.
“Our drivers who are on the road every day come back with ugly experiences in the hands of Customs and other security agents on the highway. Most times, our drivers are forced to bribe them with N500 before they are let go. Interestingly, if they refuse to bribe the officers, they won’t take the driver to their office if at all there was any offence in the first place,” he lamented.
In a chat with Daily Sun, a driver who plied the Lagos-Benin route from Iyana-Ipaja Park, said the Customs officers were regarded as small gods on the highway. He alleged that they were fond of frustrating drivers who were not ready to part with any money.
“The oppression did not start today. I have been plying this route for more than 12 years. Despite the fact that the management of my park has complied with every Customs’ rule on what not to carry, the officials will still find a way to collect money from us.
“I can’t count how many times they have threatened me with guns. Those stationed at Oluku Junction at the Benin end of the Lagos-Benin Expressway are the worst set of people. They are ready to delay you for hours just because of N200,” he said.