By Daud Olatunji

Palpable fear has gripped residents of Ogun State, especially those who live at border communities over the incessant bloody clashes between men of Nigeria Customs Service, NCS and suspected smugglers. A lot of lives have been lost while many have been severely injured in the border communities in Ogun state as a result of clashes whenever the smugglers clashed with customs officials.

•Those injured as a result of the clash

The clashes have claimed lives of so many people including residents and men of NCS. Though, some smugglers were also said to have died in the process. The NCS has been saddled with the responsibilities of checking smuggling activities in Nigeria with a view to safeguarding the health and well being of every Nigerian by protecting various borders against illegal importation of items that will pose security challenges to the nation.

But, in carrying out this responsibility NCS personnel and suspected smugglers have often clashed. These clashes have led to the death of so many of the officers while in some cases, NCS officials are left with deep machete cuts and various degrees of injuries.

Early this year, precisely January 4, Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun raised alarm that the state has over 100 illegal border crossings  across the state. Amosun hinted that all the illegal border crossings scattered in some parts of Ogun West Senatorial District have been causing huge challenges to the state in the area of security.

According to him, “the illegal borders are in Ipokia, Imeko-Afon, Yewa-North and now, many are springing up in Ado-Odo/Ota axis of the state, they are giving us huge challenges. “What many people don’t know is that Ogun State is having the largest number of borders in this country. Ogun has over 100 illegal borders.”

Few months after, the Comptroller-General of the NCS, Col. Hammed Ali (rtd.) paid a visit to the state governor with a view to ensuring proper management of the borders in the state. Col. Ali, who solicited the cooperation of the Ogun government in its anti-smuggling campaign in the state, said that such synergy had become necessary to strengthen the anti-smuggling campaign of the service.

He noted that the Federal Government had lost considerable revenue to smuggling while the service had continued to lose personnel to smugglers almost on daily basis. The NSC boss urged the government to dissuade youths particularly those at border communities from engaging in smuggling.

It was observed that despite the sensitization of people of the border communities on the dangers inherent in smuggling especially on the recent policy that banned importation of rice through the land borders, smugglers have remained recalcitrant.

April 18, 2016 , there was a clash between them along Ogun/Ole-Odan axis of Ogun State where four suspected smugglers were arrested. Vanguard gathered that the NCS seized 11 motor cycles which was used as a means of conveyance of 250 bags of smuggled rice.

Same month, pandemonium broke out at Oke- Odan township in Yewa South Local Government Area of Ogun State, following the alleged killing of three children and four others by Customs officers while pursuing smugglers.

Vanguard gathered that the Customs officials pursued some suspected smugglers, who allegedly smuggled two vehicles loaded with rice, coming from Igolo, a border town between Nigeria and Benin Republic and heading towards Sango in Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State.

Some witnesses, who spoke with Vanguard, said the Customs officials seized the vehicles and were driving them to their Idi-Iroko office when they were ambushed by some suspected smugglers. The clash reportedly led to the death of three children, a roadside mechanic, panel-beater and a secondary school leaver, simply identified as Ade.

The Customs officer reportedly called for reinforcement which led to sporadic shootings. In the process, some residents where hit by bullets and that resulted in the death of six persons while some sustained various injuries. Explaining what happened, the Public Relations Officer of the command, Usman Abubakar   said contrary to media reports, only two persons were confirmed dead after the incident.

Narrating the circumstances that led to the attack, he said, “our men were attacked by suspected smugglers on Sunday at Oke Odan after two vehicles were intercepted at Ajilete checkpoint with smuggled rice.

“Our officers were on their way taking the seized vehicles to Idiroko for safe keeping but to their surprise they were attacked by suspected smugglers at Oke Odan. The smugglers barricaded the road making it impossible for our officers to access. They were armed with dangerous weapons from dane guns to cutlasses, machete and even charms and shooting at our officers in a bid to retrieve the seized vehicles.

“So our officers had to call for reinforcement at Ajilete checkpoint and some policemen and the military. During the chaos, two people were confirmed dead while three of our officers were severely injured. They burnt down three of our checkpoints. We have arrested the mastermind of the attack and handed over to the police for further investigation.

He absolved officers from any wrong doing in the attack saying that they usually exercise caution when using firearms but had to defend themselves in the face of aggression.

“Our officers are always cautioned from using their arms but when you are carrying arm and somebody is attacking you, what will you do?”They were shooting at Customs sporadically, so you can hardly know who killed somebody because they were the ones shooting at our men,” he said.

On May   3,2016 another Pandemonium broke out in Ilashe Ipokia Local Government Area of Ogun State when some suspected smugglers reportedly attacked Nigeria Customs Service officers at a warehouse. Four of the customs men were injured. The four officials of the NCS were said to have been   hospitalised following the serious injuries they sustained in the clash while others were said to have fled the scene.

Vanguard gathered that the incident occurred when some customs officials stormed the warehouse and reportedly broke into it while attempting to evacuate bags of rice suspected to have been smuggled into the country from Republic of Benin.

But the people of the area were said to have resisted them, which led to gun duel between them and the Customs officials, leaving four of the Customs men injured. The affected officials were also said to have lost their guns to the clash while others ran for their lives with three rifles snatched from them.

It was further gathered that the missing guns, packed in a sack, were later dumped on the premises of the palace of a traditional ruler in the area, who later handed them over same to the customs. The NSC Public Relations Officer in Ogun State, Abubakar Uthman, confirmed the incident.

According to him, 11 motorcycles and 250 bags of smuggled rice were impounded and three suspected smugglers were arrested. Meanwhile, the State Command of the Nigeria Customs Service said it has confiscated 108 kilogramme of cannabis, popularly known as Indian hemp and 170 kegs of petroleum being smuggled out of the country to the neighbouring Republic of Benin.

The NCS also said 6,705 cartons of frozen poultry products, 8,721 bags of rice, 139 tokunbo vehicles, 199 motorcycles, 330 kegs of vegetable oil, 12 bales and 38 sacks of second-hand clothing, 996 pieces of second hand tyres, 80 pieces of teak wood and 1,732 pieces of unprocessed wood were confiscated along the Idiroko border as well as from smugglers around the border towns.

The Customs Area Controller for the Ogun State Command, Comptroller Waindu Multafu disclosed these while briefing newsmen at the command headquarters, Abeokuta on the latest seizures made by the operatives of the command and the revenue realised within the first quarter of 2016.

Multafu said that the 108 packages of Indian hemp were concealed in 20 bags. On the revenue realised within the first quarter of this year, the Customs area controller said that the command collected the sum of N2,715,606,022.54billion as against the N2,356,937,173.89billion collected within the same period last year.

He added that the command recorded an increase of N358,668,848.65 within the same period, saying, “The command is working assiduously towards achieving and even surpassing the monthly revenue target given it.”

According to Multafu, the aggressive and effective anti-smuggling campaign and strategies the command adopted since his assumption of office in January had compelled smugglers to make genuine declaration of imports and subsequent payment of duty.

Multafu, who emphasised that his command had maintained a steady increase in revenue generation on monthly basis however, lamented that the Federal Government’s directive, which placed embargo on importation of rice through land borders has greatly affected the revenue target of the command.

The Customs boss also, stated that the directive against rice importation through the land borders has given rise to the activities of the smugglers who illegally import the product into the country, using motorcycles to convey them in four-four bags at a go. The area controller said,”In the anti-smuggling sector, a lot of successes are being recorded on daily basis. The tactics adopted in this unit by the command resulted to 279 seizures with duty paid.