Operatives of the Nigeria Customs Services (NCS), on Wednesday night in Ilorin, clashed with some aggrieved youth over an attempt to arrest a trailer driver who was allegedly carrying contraband goods.
The incident occurred around 9pm at the Offa Garage area in Ilorin.
An eyewitness, Mohammed, who spoke with our reporter, said the Customs officials chased the trailer to the area and started shooting when it was close to the roundabout of Offa Garage.
“They shot at the tires and the trailer driver lost control.
“They didn’t want residents to interfere but this arrogance needs to stop.
“People are suffering, we don’t want security agents killing us again.
“We all came out and they went to reinforce with three additional vans but we stood our ground.
“They later checked the trailer and saw that it was chicken feed inside,” he added.
Another resident, who refused to disclose his name, collaborated Mohammed’s account and queried why Customs could be firing indiscriminately in an urban and highly populated area.
“This is how they will tell us it is a stray bullet but there won’t be a stray bullet if they don’t fire indiscriminately within a highly-populated area like this.
“If they had done their jobs well, there wouldn’t be any contraband goods in the cities,” he said.
When contacted, the spokesman for the Service in Kwara State, Zakari Chado, who confirmed the incident, however, denied that officers fired at the tires of the trailer.
He said: “Based on credible intelligence, our officers accosted a truck suspected to be conveying rice concealed in animal feed.
“But while carrying out our duty, it’s unfortunate that those who did not mean well for the country decided to stop officers from doing their work.
“As a responsive and responsible organisation, we decided to withdraw from the scene to avoid casualties.
“But the driver of the said truck deliberately punctured one of his tyres at the middle of the busy road to cause traffic and went and mobilized thugs to attack our officers”.
“Section 147 of Customs and excise management Act CAP C45 LFN 2004 Nigeria gives Customs officers power to search (without a warrant) anything (Vehicle, ship and even bedrooms) suspected to be carrying/stocked with contraband.
“As a service saddle with responsibilities of prevention of smuggling, trade facilitation and collection of Customs duty, we will continue to do our job as enshrined in the constitution”, Zakari submitted.
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