Hoodlums attack customs officials retrieve confiscated bags of rice

kehinde Akinpelu Ilorin

Some miscreants attacked men of the Nigerian Customs Service’ s roving team along Alapa area in Asa local government area of Kwara state.

The hoodlums who had vanished into thin air were said to have carried out the dastardly act on Tuesday, with the aide of a serving policeman allegedly attached to Alapa police station.

The intercepted NCS’s team was led by a Chief Superintendent of Customs, Maciver A.L.

According to the leader of the team the incident happened when they went on information patrol on Ilorin – Alapa road when they received information that smugglers have hidden two golf vehicles ladened with imported rice inside the bush.

He added that ” on sighting the patrol vans , the drivers of the vehicle containing the smuggled rice, bolted with the keys of the vehicles” .

Maciver said due to the state of the vehicles that were ladened with the contraband, himself and his men decided to evacuate the rice into the two customs vehicles on patrol .

The customs boss alleged that after taken off from the scene of the interception and on their way to their office with the bags of rice, on four golf vehicles loaded with people suspected to be thugs pursued their patrol vehicles with the assistance of a police corporal and forcefully offloaded all the bags of rice after partially destroying the customs patrol vehicle.

According to him , the ongoing construction work along Geri Alimi Roundabout in Ilorin slowed down t his men from moving fast and the police corporal and the thugs caught up with them and forcefully offloaded the rice back to the golf vehicles .

Micever said due to the presence of innocent citizens around where his men were attacked, they could not open fire on the thugs to guide against shooting of innocent people.

He said that investigation has begun on the issue, assuring that the culprits would be apprehended and made to face the music.

When contacted, the spokesman of the Kwara state police command , DSP Ajayi Okasanmi said the NCS has not officially briefed the command about the development.

He, however, confirmed that the state commissioner of Police, Mr Lawan Ado has directed the Divisional Police Officer in Alapa to investigate the matter and report back to the headquarters about the involvement of the corporal in question.

Okasanmi said that if the corporal was found to be involved in the allegation , he would be death with officially and brought to book accordingly.