Two persons suspected to be smugglers on Wednesday sustained
gunshot wounds during an exchange of gunfire between Customs officers attached
to the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Ikeja of the Nigerian Customs Service
(NCS) and rice smugglers at Abule-Egba in Lagos.
During the altercation, a Customs officer was hit
in the eyes with a bottle thrown at fleeing Customs officers.
Speaking on how the skirmish played out, Spokesman
of the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A of NCS, Jerry Attah, stated that the
suspected smugglers raised a mob attack on the Customs at Abule-Egba in order
to escape arrest.
According to him, “In the early hours of the
morning, one of our patrol teams noticed a vehicle that was loaded with
smuggled rice along unapproved routes, towards Abule-Egba.
“Our patrol team chased them down to Abule-Egba.
However, when our men got there and wanted to make an arrest, the smugglers mobilised
a mob around the overhead bridge to attack our men.
“There was a mob attack on the Customs officers who
wanted to make an arrest of the vehicle loaded with smuggled rice. At that
point, there was an exchange of gunfire between the smugglers and Customs
officers.”
He added: “When the crowd was becoming too hostile,
our officers had to flee the scene of the incident to call for more
reinforcement. Our men were being attacked with bottles, machetes and even
charms. Unfortunately, one of our officers was hit in the left eye by one of
the bottles thrown at them.
“As at the time our men left the scene of the
incident, there was no recorded death. Our men came to call for reinforcement
and got back there only to discover that the rice-laden vehicle was now empty.
The smugglers had taken all the rice away from the car. Later, we were told
that the said vehicle had been taken to a nearby police station for safe
keeping.
“Our officers did not come back with any of the rice
because the vehicle had been emptied by the smugglers before it was taken to a
nearby police station.”
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