Die-hard smugglers have again killed a Customs officer while two other officers sustained serious injuries on Thursday at Idiroko border, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)  has reported.

Ade Olafusi, an Assistant Superintendent of Customs with Customs Federal Operations was crushed to death by a smuggler’s vehicle trying to force its way through a Customs post at Ajilete near the border.

Olafusi was the second Customs officer to be killed at Idiroko border within one week after another officer was on October 25 shot dead in an accidental discharge during a scuffle between Customs men and smugglers.

The Customs Area Comptroller, Alhaji Sahabi Sadiq, said in Idiroko border that the dare-devil smugglers arrived at the Customs checkpoint in Ajilete in a convoy of vehicles loaded with frozen chicken and armed with dangerous weapons.

The Customs boss said that when his men stopped the convoy, one of the vehicles, an ash-coloured Mazda 323 with registration number DS 616 LSD, suddenly sped off and ran over the Customs officers in an attempt to escape. One of the affected officers died instantly while two others were seriously injured.

The body of the dead officer has been deposited in a  mortuary at Idiroko General Hospital where those injured were hospitalised, Sadiq said.

According to the Customs comptroller, the driver of the Mazda car that killed the officer was promptly arrested and detained with the car at Owode Police Station.

Sadiq said that other members of the gang escaped in the ensuing scuffle and abandoned four vehicles with the contraband.

NAN reports that registration numbers of the abandoned vehicles are Toyota Camry PZ 663 KJA, Datsun Laurel LZ 730 MUS, Mazda PB 789 AAA and BMW SL 216 KJA.

About 6,000 cartons of frozen chicken seized from the smugglers were destroyed and buried in graves in the presence of other security agents at the border.