Hyacinth Chinweuba
The Nigeria Customs Service in Ogun State has reported an encounter with suspected smugglers leading to death of one suspect.
The Custom team trailing the smugglers also encountered an attack from angry youths who set ablaze one of their patrol vehicles.
According spokesperson of the Command, HB Oloyede, “On Tuesday, 11th August, 2020, at about 1430hours, a combined patrol team attached to Nigeria Customs Service, Ogun I Command went on information patrol around Sele/Owode Ketu Road, Yewa North Local Government in Ogun State, and intercepted a motorcycle loaded with foreign bags of rice (50kg each).
The said rice and the means of conveyance were taken to the patrol base leaving some officers behind to be on surveillance for another information. ”
“On reaching a bush path of the same area, some suspected smugglers on Motorcycles (Popularly known as Okada) laden with some bags of 50kg foreign parboiled rice, on sighting Officers ran away in convoy to evade arrest.
With the level of their speed and the state of the road, one of the suspected smugglers summersaulted, hit his head on the ground, while the motorcycle with some bags of 50kg foreign parboiled rice fell on him and was discovered dead on the spot.” said Oloyede.
Consequently, the corpse was taken to mortuary by the Police, while the motorcycle with the uncustomed goods were taken to Police Station for further investigation.
However, some unscrupulous youths resorted to unleashing mayhem on Customs personnel, burnt a patrol base, and took away one of the intercepted motorcycles.
On getting the report, the Customs Area Controller immediately called for reinforcement from other Customs patrol teams, Border drill and Nigeria Police whose combined effort brought the situation under control.
As at the time of this report, normalcy has returned to the area, said Oloyede.