One of the female passengers in an interstate bus, who witnessed
the shooting and subsequently killing of a man identified as Godwin by officers of the Nigeria Customs at Shagamu
interchange along Ijebu Ode on Sunday, has disclosed her version of what really
led to the shooting.
The
woman, who spoke on a radio programme, Aproko People’ said trouble started
after one of the Customs men demanded for N5000 bribe from their bus driver.
According to the woman, after the Customs men flagged down their
bus, their driver went to meet them at the back.
A few minutes later, one of the Customs officers returned to the
bus and told the passengers that they were going to search the entire luggage
in the booth of the bus.
A passenger sitting at the front seat of the bus told them it
was wrong.
She further recalled: “The passenger said that the luggage
contained our personal stuff, that there were no exhibits. He told them that everyone
in the bus was returning from abroad. But the Customs man said that they were
doing their job. The passenger asked him if the immigration official that
checked them didn’t know their job, the Customs officer said yes. The passenger
asked him what about Customs officials at airport, he responded that those
couldn’t make an arrest. At that point, the passenger at the front seat got
down. Those of us inside the bus shouted that the door of the bus should be
opened, so that we could step out. The heat was much.”
The woman continued: “Another Customs officer said yes, everyone
must step down to identify their bags. The passenger at the front seat said no,
that the officers wouldn’t be allowed to search our bags inside the bush. The
place was a bush. As the passenger was video recording them, one of the Customs
men picked a wood and wanted hit one of our brothers, we all shouted, and that
was how he just corked his AK47 rifle and opened fire. One guy fell down and
died.
“We all started shouting, Customs don kill person, Customs don
kill person. The rest of the Customs officers scattered and ran into the bush.
The shooter then raised the hand of the dead man. We thought the dead man was
one of our passengers. He was not in Customs’ uniform. That was why we started
fighting them. One of the Customs officers wanted to enter their Hilux van. The
car they placed the dead man was just a derelict one. They had two vehicles
there.
“When we went to check for means of identification on the
deceased, we then discovered that the tee-shirt he wore had Customs officer
inscription was on it. We then realized that he was not one of our passengers. We
entered our bus and we were exactly 10 passengers. We left the Customs officers.
Yes, Customs officer killed Customs officer. The shooter, after the killing, looked like
his spirit died. The rest of the Customs men, thinking it was a passenger that
was killed, ran into the bush. They were up to eight Customs men at that spot.
“The driver told us that the Customs men asked him to bring
N5000; he explained to them that he was not the owner of the luggage in the
booth of the bus. It was because the driver said that the items didn’t belong
to him and that he didn’t have N5000 that made the Customs men to insist they
wanted to search our entire luggage.”
The altercation between the passengers, who were in Iyare Motors
and the Customs men, leading to shooting to death of Godwin, was captured on
two videos by some of the passengers. The videos, which were uploaded on the
internet on Sunday, went viral, causing anger among Nigerians
A driver of Iyare Motors, who didn’t want his name, mentioned
said: “The incident happened following a heated argument between officers of
the Nigeria Customs service. The argument led to one of the officers shooting
his colleague to death.”
Nigeria
Customs spokesman, Joseph Attah, while confirming the incident, had said: Contrary to some narratives, the young man was
not a passenger of the bus but a good citizen who always come to fetch water
for Customs Patrol men anytime they return to the base. Preliminary finding
indicate that it was during the skirmishes and struggle to disarm the Officer
that the rifle discharged and hit the friend of the Customs (Godwin) who lost
his life. The Service is already in touch with the bereaved family.”
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