From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Three persons have been shot dead on Thursday as men of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) shot sporadically in the town of Iseyin, on Oke-Ogun axis of Oyo State.
Two other persons were also reported to have sustained varying degrees of injury during the incident.
Daily Sun gathered that the operatives of NCS allegedly shot indiscriminately in the town after intercepting contrabands, being smuggled into Nigeria through the borders of the state.
A resident of Iseyin, Hassan Abiodun, told Daily Sun that some of those hit by stray bullets were on outings for the Eid-el-Fitr celebration before they ran into the tragedy.
As gathered, the development has caused tension in Iseyin and some people have taken to the street to protest the against the incident.
According to Abiodun: “I heard that the bullets, whether stray ones or not, hit five persons. Four were initially thought to have died, while one person was injured. But one of the four persons initially thought to have died was resuscitated. So, I can tell you that three persons died and two persons were fatally injured. But there may still be some people hit by the stray bullet that have not shown up.
“I must tell you that a similar incident occurred in the same town of Iseyin some months ago. The indiscriminate shooting by the operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service led to a face-off between them and members of the proscribed Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW),. Then, the chairman of the union in Iseyin was hit by a bullet from the customs officers.’”
The spokesperson of Oyo/Osun Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, Mr. Kayode Wey, could not be reached on his phone for confirmation as he did not pick several calls made to his line.