AYETORO, Yewa North Local Government area of Ogun state was on Friday night, thrown into panic as some officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and residents of the area were engaged in a violent clash.
The clash was said to have led to the burning of three customs vehicles and shooting of a youth, popularly known as Soliu, three times.
An eyewitness, Razak Adeyemi, explained that trouble started after a heated argument ensued between a customs officer and a resident suspected to be a smuggler after which the matter was resolved and both parties went their separate ways.
He added that about an hour later, four fully loaded customs Hilux vehicles stormed the community, with the officers shooting into the air.
The act was said to have angered the youths in the community which resulted in violent face-off between the officers and youths in the community.
About an hour later, four customs Hilux, with fully armed customs officers entered our community and they started shooting anyhow in the air. After several attempts to stop them became fruitless, the youths in the area then faced them and they started shooting at the people.”
“If you see the way they were shooting, it was like a war zone, like they have been told to kill us all. If not because many of our youths are fortified, many would have been dead by now. If you go round the community, you will see people whose clothes were torn by the customs’ bullets, but the bullets didn’t penetrate their bodies; only for one guy called Soliu who was shot three times.”
When contacted, the spokesperson of NCS, Ogun Area 1 Command, Hammed Oloyede, confirmed the incident, noting that the command had commenced investigation into the reasons for the clash, promising to get back to our reporter.
