Ogun state assembly seeks governor abiodun’s intervention over alleged customs attack on border residents

The Ogun State House of Assembly on Wednesday called on Governor Dapo Abiodun to engage the top hierarchy of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) with a view to resolving the illegal arrest and harassment of some law abiding citizens and residents of border towns in the State.

Penpushing reports that, the Speaker,  Rt Hon  Kunle Oluomo, made the appeal in his response to the member representing Yewa North I State Constituency, Hon. Adegoke Awoso who decried the unprofessional discharge of duty by some operatives of the customs  who he alleged often misfire arms on the people under the guise of chasing smugglers in border towns.

The lawmaker representing Yewa North 1, in his submission at the plenary said he frowned at the manner the customs officials are treating residents of the area, with the executive order given to them by the Presidency and under the guise of discharging their duties

‘I Hon.(Chief)  Adeyanju Adegoke Awoso will like to register my displeasure on the way and manners security operatives are treating my people with the Executive Order given to them by the Presidency and under the guise of discharging their duties’ he told the assembly.

‘It is the bitter truth that the Executive Order given by the Presidency is not ordinarily injurious to the citizens but greed and avarice on the part of the custom officers have translated into the killing of innocent people by them’, Awoso pointed out.

‘One question that remains unanswered is how these  smuggled items get to our towns and cities from Benin Republic? I want to let you know that there are over 50 checkpoints manned with officers of the Nigerian Custom and other services between Benin Republic and Imasaiyi for instance. These goods are not transported through the waterways or airlifted but transmitted through the roads with these 50 Checkpoints. It is then pertinent to inquire about what the officers are exactly monitoring?’,the lawmaker argued

‘The information at our disposal is that those smugglers usually bribe their way through those checkpoints in order to move their goods to town. The Custom officers will now conspire and alert the Federal Team in Lagos and Abuja to come and raid them at their rendezvous, shops or along transit. This is usually after they have paid huge amount of money to pass. This act of betrayal led to the reprisal attack that resulted into the killing of innocent people’.

‘Permit me to use the Imasayi case, which happened in March and which led to the killing of a Police Officer as an example.   Igbogila township to Imasayi is just about 50 kilometers and there are about 30 checkpoints with different uniform men on that stretch. We have Custom, Police, Civil Defence, Immigration, Soldiers etc’.

‘The question is how did these bags of rice get to the market shops in Imasayi? Why did the fully armed security team choose to raid during the market day when commercial activities were high?  During the attack, many people were injured, many motors and motorcycles were destroyed and in the course of that, a police officer died which led to the arrest of 7 men from Imasayi. These men, who are my constituents, are still in police custody till date’

‘As much as I don’t support illegal smuggling of items nor the killing of the police officer, I must indeed state that the way the officers acted on the executive order is inhumane and unprofessional. I will like to use this medium to implore Mr Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun to look into the matter of my people in Imasayi and temper justice with mercy especially as regards those arrested. I am saying this because His Excellency is the Chief Security Officer in Ogun State and not our security men alone’.

‘Section 17 subsection 2a& c says “Every citizen shall have equality of rights, obligations  and opportunities before law;  Governmental  actions shall be humane; respectively”. On this note, I see the detention of these suspected people as inhumane and unjust because more than 10 citizens of Ogun West have lost their lives through the greed and unprofessionalism of our uniform men and nobody was prosecuted till today’.

‘The death of a police officer has warranted that 7 men were locked. I don’t think the Nigerian uniforms should be a licence to kill innocent citizens or should place security officers above the law.  I will like DA to help us to look into this matter. I will also suggest to my hardworking Governor to send emissaries to monitor the activities of our uniform men across the State especially those at the border areas to confirm the authenticity of this narrative’.

‘We laud the initiative of the Security Fund set up by your administration to ensure proper security of lives and properties of Ogun citizens. I will suggest that you set up this neighbourhood watch to monitor these uniform men from the security fund Sir’.

‘Conclusively, permit me to put on record that I am not saying all uniform men in Ogun State are unprofessional and greedy but some noticeable ones amongst them. It is important that we take a collective action against them because one bad apple will spoil the rest’, the worried lawmaker emphasised.

Meanwhile, also in his remarks appealed to the residents of the affected communities to be law abiding and remain peaceful, saying peace and tranquility were essential to societal development.