Customs officer hospitalised after smugglers attack

… Arrests 5, seizes bags of smuggled rice

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

A customs officer who was on Friday, 8 May, 2020 brutally macheted by smugglers that attacked the officers and men of the Nigeria Customs Service(NCS), Ogun I Command has survived by a whisker and is now hospitalized.

The officer, Assistant Superintendent, Chidi Johnson along with others, were on information patrol to Ilashe village in Ipokia Local Government Area of Ogun state in the fight against smuggling.

While the operation in the area lasted, the officers  Intercepted thirty-five (35) bags of smuggled parboiled rice of 50kg each ferried by a convoy of motorcyclists(okada), a situation that angered the smugglers to mobilize and attacked the men and inflicted various degrees of matchet cuts on Johnson.

In a release made available to nation update, signed by the Unit’s Public Relations Officer, Abdulahi Maiwada, for the Ogun 1, Area Controller, said “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.

“In an effort to repel the attack and avoid blood shed, one officer of the Customs, Assistant Superintendent Chidi Johnson was brutally macheted, sustaining deep cuts in various parts of his body.”

Maiwada according to the release, the critically wounded Officer was immediately rushed to the hospital for medical attention, and was responding well to treatment.

He stated that five of the smugglers who were carrying out their illicit act in defiance of the lockdown order in the area have been arrested and are helping in the investigation.

“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.

The command therefore called on masterminds of these nefarious acts who operate behind the scenes, and conscript uninformed youths into such acts, not limited to attack on personnel of the Service to send their biological children to come and have a taste of the consequences of their actions.