Smugglers ‘go into hiding’ after attempt to kill customs officer in Ogun

Suspected rice smugglers operating around Owode, Idi-iroko and Sango axes in Ogun State have gone into hiding after they carried out an attack on a customs patrol team during which one of the officers almost died.

The smugglers, who usually operate openly in the areas, had ambushed a customs patrol team and inflicted a deep cut on the head of one of the officers and took away his rifle, but they dumped the rifle not far from the scene of the attack.

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Our correspondent who visited Sango market discovered uneasy calm in the area.

The market at Sango is one of the biggest markets where bags of foreign rice are usually stored for onward distribution to other parts of the country, and the trucks and motorcycles used by smugglers to convey the bags of rice to the market could not be seen on the ever-busy Sango-Idiroko road.

The news that a combined team of customs officers and soldiers has been set up following the attack has created tension among traders and residents as they believe that the place would be raided any time soon.

The acting Controller of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, Kehinde Ejibunu, had warned that his officers would no longer pay the supreme prize over the smuggling of poisonous rice by criminals.