Steve Agbota
The Ogun State Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), has allegedly killed a student of Ojomo Community High School, Ihunbo, while conveying a seized tokunbo vehicle.
The school is located at Ihunbo town, Ipokia local government, a border town between Nigeria and the Republic of Benin.
A resident of the town who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity alleged that the secondary school student was killed while two were injured by Customs officers.
The resident who was furious about the recent incident said: “Customs should be mandated to stay at the border and not be roaming about the town killing innocent Nigerians. The life of an innocent boy has just been cut short by overzealous officers. They should be allowed to stay at the border and stop killing innocent Nigerians.”
Another resident, Ojo Olumide who was hurt following the death of the secondary student, decried the activities of the officers of the command, adding that the Federal Government should restrict the activities of the service to the borders in order to stop the avoidable death of Nigerians.
“The youths of Ipokia local government had an Independence walk and wrote to all security agencies stationed in Ipokia. The men of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) were informed but they refused to solidarise 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 also did not listen to the voice of the stakeholders who accommodated them. Now, some daredevil officers had shot down an innocent soul while shooting sporadically,” he lamented.
Confirming the incident, the Public Relations Officer of the command, Abdulahi Maiwada, said the incident was an accident, saying that nobody would deliberately come out to kill.
“We really commiserate and condoned with the family of the school pupil. It was so unfortunate that the incident occurred. “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 stray bullet, (that killed him) neither were the victims being pursued. It was a mere accident.”
