Six fear dead as Customs, smugglers clash in Ogun

It was a sorrowful Sunday at Oke-Odan township in Yewa South Local Government Area of Ogun State when stray bullets allegedly fired during gun battle between officials of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and smugglers killed three children and three others.

It was gathered that the gun duel occurred at Oke-Odan area when Customs officers pursued some suspected smugglers who were trying to smuggle two vehicles loaded with rice into Nigeria from Republic of Benin through Igolo, a border town between Nigeria and Republic of Benin, moving towards Sango in Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State.

Eye-witness accounts gathered by BusinessDay indicated that the Customs officials seized the vehicles and were driving them to Idi-Iroko Operation Unit when they were ambushed by some suspected smugglers, which reportedly led to the death of three children, a roadside mechanic, a panel-beater and a secondary school leaver, simply identified as Ade.

An eye-witness account has it that Customs officer allegedly called for reinforcement, who got to the scene of incident and started shooting sporadically, which propelled stray bullets that reportedly hit some residents, and resulted into the death of six persons while some sustained various degrees of injury.

Confirming the incident to newsmen in Abeokuta, Muyiwa Adejobi and Usman Abubakar, both Ogun State police public relations officer and public relations officer of Nigeria Customs, respectively, disclosed, however, that only two people lost their lives in the gun duel ant not six as reported.

Abubakar said three of Customs officers also sustained injuries during the gun attack by the smugglers, adding that three of their checkpoints were burnt down.

“Two people have been confirmed dead. Our officers were attacked by smugglers on their way to Idi-Iroko office after seizing two vehicles loaded with rice at Ajilete.

“These smugglers carried guns, cutlasses, axe, broken bottles and stoned our officers with a view to recovering their vehicles with the contraband and injured three officers.

“We had to call for reinforcement of military and police before we could escaped from the smugglers, they burnt down three of our check points,” he said.

‎But, the police public relations officer in the state, affirmed that the command was aware of the clash between armed men and smugglers, saying that only two casualties were recorded in the clash and that “the alleged mastermind of the incident identified as Oke Gbenro has been arrested.”

He confirmed that the police had taken up the issue, adding: “as at now, we have recorded two people confirmed dead and we have taken the corpses to a public ‎morgue for autopsy and for proper investigation.”