One person died while many others were injured on Tuesday in Ogun State as Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) officials engaged some suspected smugglers in a face-off.
The deceased, according to the Public Relations Officer, Ogun 1 Area Command of the NCS, Hammed Oloyede, fell from his motorcycle and hit his head on the road.
Oloyede, in a statement yesterday, said the patrol team, attached to the NCS Ogun I Command on patrol on the Sele/Owode Ketu road, Yewa North Local Government, Ogun State, had intercepted a motorcycle loaded with 50kg bags of foreign rice on August 11, 2020 at about 2.30pm.
The spokesman stated that the NCS men were taking the rice and the motorcycle to their patrol base, leaving some officers behind on surveillance, when they sighted some suspected smugglers on motorcycles laden with 50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice.
“On sighting the officers, the smugglers began running away in a convoy to evade arrest. With the level of their speed and the state of the road, one of the suspected smugglers somersaulted from his motorcycle, hit his head on the ground with the motorcycle and some bags of rice falling on him, and was discovered dead on the spot.
“The police took the corpse to the mortuary, while the motorcycle and the goods were taken to the police station for further investigation,” he added.
The Customs spokesman further stated that some “unscrupulous” youths then resorted to unleashing mayhem on Customs personnel, burnt a patrol base and took away one of the intercepted motorcycles.
He said that on getting a report on the situation, the Customs Area Controller immediately called for reinforcement from other Customs patrol teams, border drill and the Nigeria Police, whose combined efforts he said brought the situation under control.
