Smugglers confront customs officers with machete attack over contraband rice

Assistant Superintendent with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) ,Ogun State Command, Chidi Johnson been allegedly macheted by suspected smugglers in Ilashe village in Ipokia Local Government Area state over seizure of smuggled rice.

Penpushing reports that, Ogun 1 Area Command Public Relations Officer Abdullahi Maiwada made this known on Sunday in a statement, explaining that the incident occurred on Friday, when the officials thwarted efforts of the suspected smugglers to illegally brought 35 bags of smuggled parboiled rice into the country.

‘At about 1930hours on Friday 8th May, 2020, Officers and Men of Nigeria Customs Service Ogun I Command went on information patrol to Ilashe village in Ipokia Local Government Area of Ogun state’.

‘During operation, they intercepted thirty-five (35) bags of smuggled parboiled rice of 50kg each ferried by a convoy of motorcyclists (popularly known as Okada. On their way out of the area, the diehard smugglers mobilised themselves in an overwhelming number, launching a vicious attack with assorted  weapons on Officers performing their lawful duties’, Maiwadah stated.

Penpushing further reports that, Maiwada said, in an effort to repel the attack and avoid bloodshed, one officer of the Customs, Assistant Superintendent Chidi Johnson was brutally matcheted, sustaining deep cuts in various parts of his body.

‘The seriously wounded officer was immediately rushed to the hospital for medical attention, and luckily he is responding to treatment. To this end, five suspects have been arrested in connection with the incident and are currently undergoing interrogation’.

‘It is instructive to note that Friday (08/05/2020) was a date set aside for total lockdown in Ogun state due to the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. We find it unfortunate and strange, that the  daredevil smugglers who have no regards for laws of the land or the disease ravaging the global community resorted to crossing the border  through illegal routes to perpetrate  such nefarious activities in total disregard of the health and economic well being of Nigerians’, he said.

‘Principally, we seize this opportunity to enjoin the faceless unpatriotic smuggling cartels to stop using uninformed youths as cannon fodders in their nefarious trade. We challenge them to bring their own biological children to attack personnel of the service and have a taste of the consequences of such act’, he declared