Police arrest attackers of Customs officer in Ogun

From Felix Mordi

No fewer than five persons have been arrested in connection with the vicious attack of Customs men at Ilashe, a border community near Idiroko in Ogun State.

In the attack, which took place at about 7:30pm on Friday, May 8, 2020, one operative of the Ogun Area 1 Command of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Assistant Superintendent (ASC) Chidi Johnson, sustained severe injuries, following machete cuts.

The victim was said to have been rushed to a hospital, where he is said to be responding to treatment.

According to a press statement issued by the Command's Public Relations Officer (PRO), Abdullahi Maiwada, the operatives, following a tip-off, went on a patrol to Ilashe village where they intercepted thirty-five (35) bags of smuggled parboiled rice of 50kg each, ferried in a convoy of motorcyclists (popularly known as okada).

"On their way out of the area, the die-hard smugglers mobilised themselves in an overwhelming number, launching a vicious attack with assorted weapons on the officers performing their lawful duties.

"In an effort to repel the attack and avoid bloodshed, one officer of the Customs, Assistant Superintendent Chidi Johnson, was brutally macheted, sustaining deep cuts on various parts of his body", the PRO lamented.

Meanwhile, according to the release, the five suspects arrested in connection with the dastardly act were undergoing interrogation.

Maiwada noted that Friday (08/05/2020) was a date set aside for total lockdown in the state due to the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

He expressed disgust on the unfortunate and strange development, adding that the dare-devil smugglers have no regards for laws of the land or the disease ravaging the global community, to have resorted to crossing the border through illegal routes to perpetrate such nefarious activites in total disregard to the health and economic well-being of Nigerians.

He, however, charged the "faceless and unpatriotic smuggling cartel" to stop using uninformed youths as cannon fodders in their nefarious trade. Instead, he challenged them to bring forth their biological children into the act of attacking personnel of the Service to have a taste of the consequences of such an act.

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