Two persons have been reportedly injured and three patrol vehicles burnt in a clash involving operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and residents of Ayetoro, Yewa North Local Government Area, Ogun State.
An officer and a youth in the area, popularly as Soliu, sustained injuries in the clash.
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It was learnt that there was an altercation between a local suspected to be a smuggler and a Customs officer, but the matter was settled following an intervention.
A witness, Razak Adeyemi, said about an hour after the two parties went separate ways, four Hilux vehicles conveying customs officers stormed the community, and shot sporadically in the air.
Miffed by the development, he said the youths challenged the officers, leading to hence a violent face-off between the operatives and youths in the community.
Adeyemi said, “It all started like a normal argument between a man and a customs officer at Oke Rori, here in Ayetoro. They had few minutes of argument, after which military men and residents wadded into the issue and it was resolved.
“About an hour time, four Customs hilux, with fully armed customs officers entered our community and they started shooting anyhow in the air. After several attempts to stop them became fruitless, the youths in the area then faced them and they started shooting at the people.”
Another resident of Ayetoro, Nojeeem, said, “If you see the way they were shooting, it was like a war zone, like they have been told to kill us all. If not because many of our youths are fortified many, would have been dead by now. If you go round the community, you will see people whose clothes were torn by the customs’ bullets, but the bullets didn’t penetrate their bodies; only for one guy called Soliu who was shot three times.”
Nojeem said the injured victim has been taken away by his family members to a yet-to-be known traditional care centre.
The Public Relations Officer of NCS, Ogun Area 1 Command, Hammed Oloyede, confirmed the incident, saying an officer was injured in the clash.
He also confirmed that three patrol vans were torched by the residents.
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