ANGER IN OGUN COMMUNITY

There is anger at Sango, a com­munity in Ado Odo/Ota Local Government area of Ogun State over the killings of some persons in the area. The act was allegedly car­ried out by some men of the Nigeria Customs Service.

Last Friday, when some market men and women as well as family members of those killed during the sporadic shootings gathered at the council’s headquarters, the only thing they demanded from the Federal Government was justice.
One of the victims is a 22-year-old girl, Angela Abah, who died from a stray bullet purportedly shot by the customs personnel from the Federal Operations Unit, Lagos on Monday, February 23. Many others sustained serious injuries.
On the fateful Monday, the customs of­ficers were allegedly pursuing rice smug­glers from Ilaro through the Lagos-Abeo­kuta Expressway. They were reported to have started shooting right on top of the Sango bridge while approaching the mo­tor park and the market.
Daily Sun was unable to confirm the alleged involvement of customs men in the shooting. The girl hailed from Kogi State, according to her employer, Mrs. Sarah Morakinyo. She said the girl was preparing amala, a local meal in front of the shop located at the Ibadan garage axis directly opposite the road before she was felled by the bullet.
“She started working for me just this January, and it was her sister that brought her to me. I paid her daily after the close of business. No doubt, she was a very humble and dedicated girl. For her to be doing this kind of work definitely shows that she was from a very poor background yet determined to make a living through hard work, instead of indulging in prostitution which some girls of her age normally indulged in. Her killers must surely be brought to book,” she said.
Morakinyo lamented that the police had refused to release the corpse of the deceased to her family, which has further compounded their sorrow.
“The police, after the shooting moved to the spot and took the corpse to Ifo General Hospital’s mortuary. But since the incident, the family has been going to the station to get the police to release the body to us for burial. So, our coming here today is also to get the council chairman to prevail on the police to release the body to us for burial,” she said.
The local government chairman, Comrade Rotimi Rahmon, described the incident as extra- judicial killing. He said the death toll had risen to four, noting that three of those who sustained injuries had also died.
The council boss told the leaders and members of the Sango-Ota Marketers Association that it was high time some security agents in the country were called to order.
Comrade Rahmon, who claimed that he saw the customs officers driving danger­ously around Ijako area on the fateful day, said there was no way they could deny responsibility for the act.
He said he had forwarded a petition, dated February 25, 2015, to the Comp­troller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service and copied the Comptroller, Ogun State Command, the Commissioner of Police and the Area Commander, Sango-Ota. He asserted that there were other witnesses who would testify to the incident.
He said: “We are ready to take it to the court of law if they deny it. I saw them and would have witnessed the ugly episode but needed to be in the office for some urgent business. And ten minutes after I got to the office, I started receiving calls that the customs men had killed and maimed people and still refused to stop. The Ifo Local Government chairman who was coming from Lagos said he saw them still shooting till Alakuko.”
Stressing that shooting in highly-popu­lated areas like markets and motor parks was wrong, the visibly angry council boss demanded that the ‘killer operative’ must be fished out for discipline to prevent a recurrence.
“The killing by the customs men in this axis is becoming too many,” he regretted. “These senseless killings by those who should protect the citizens must stop.
“In this age, it is expected that those who are saddled with the maintenance of law and order, peace and security must be scientific in their approach in the handling of firearms, especially in populated areas like markets and motor parks.
“The family members of the deceased are demanding justice. We must all join our voices to this cry for justice, because nobody knows who the next victim may be. Our cry for justice now may save the next victim.”
He expressed that the law enforce­ment agents were supposed to know that Sango, being the busiest area in the local government where all kinds of people from different ethnic groups in Nigeria were resident or engaged in assorted businesses should not have served as a battleground.
He also condemned the customs of­ficers for what he considered negligence of duty. “For rice and other banned items to have passed through about 50 checkpoints between Idiroko borders and Sango Motor park, one is quick to ask where the customs men and the other security agencies were when these goods passed without being intercepted by any of them? Or was it that the smugglers concerned failed to grease their palms and that was the reason for this hot chase?
“On behalf of the families of the citizens who were cut down in their prime, we demand justice and adequate compensation, and the settlement of the hospital bills of the injured by the Nige­ria Customs Service.”
He warned that if he waited for a week and got no response from the Nigeria Customs Service, he would write a reminder with an ultimatum. After the expiration of the ultimatum, he noted, he would be left with no choice than to lead a peaceful protest to the Federal Opera­tions Unit, Ikeja.
Most of the traders said the incident was not the first time, even as they recounted their woes in the hands of the customs officials who they said always invaded their stores without prior notice.
They confirmed that similar incidents had occurred in 2010 and 2012, during which innocent people were killed.
One of the traders, Apostle Sunday Ajayi said customs personnel often seized goods bought from Sango Market at Ajegunle area of Lagos State, with claims that they were goods from Idiroko border town.
Another trader, Ganiat Ajara, said but for providence, she would have died in 2010, when officials of the customs invaded the market and started shooting.
“I was six months pregnant then,” she recalled. When the pandemonium broke out, I fell down and sustained serious injury. I was saved by divine grace then and I still have the mark of the wound I sustained then. Their problem is too much and they need to realize that not everyone in the market is selling rice,” she said.