The Ogun State Police Command said
its men have taken over investigation into the controversial shooting of a
civilian, Godwin Onoja, by men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Sunday.
The state Police Public Relations
Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who confirmed this in a telephone interview with New
Telegraph, said men of the command had visited the scene of the
incident.
Oyeyemi, a Deputy Superintendent of
Police, however, countered the narrative that the victim of the shooting was
returning from abroad when he met his fate at Sagamu Interchange of the
Lagos-Ore-Benin Expressway.
He corroborated the position of the
NCS Public Relations Officer, Joseph Attah, who insisted that videos that went
viral on Sunday about the incident were not true reflection of what
transpired.
In the videos, the background voice
of a traumatised woman was screaming, alleging that Customs operatives killed
the victim because of N5, 000.
It was reported that the victim
was shot during an altercation between the officers of the Federal Operations
Unit of the NCS, Ikeja, Lagos, and some travellers, who boarded an Iyare Motors
passenger bus travelling to Benin City from Lagos.
But speaking with our correspondent,
Oyeyemi said it was untrue that Customs operatives shot dead one of overseas
returnees.
The police spokesman disclosed that
the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Sagamu personally went to the scene
and ascertained the facts.
Oyeyemi said, "Some people sent
the DPO Sagamu distress call, so he had to move to the scene. On getting there,
he found that somebody had been shot. In fact, he met the dead body there. The
passengers and other people had wanted to mob the Customs operatives. They had
injured some of them.
"The police had to first of all
rescue the Customs men and their patrol vehicle. The injured operatives are
currently in the hospital. Their patrol vehicle should be at the Sagamu police
station now.
"It's a lie that he (the victim)
was coming from abroad. He was not coming from abroad. The victim was among the
Camp boys of the Customs men.
"It was gathered that there was
argument between the passengers and the Customs men. The passenger vehicle was
suspected to be conveying second hand clothes. The Customs operatives wanted to
intercept it. In the ensuing argument, the victim was accidentally shot.
"I can tell you that the video
did not genuinely reflect what transpired. Immediately the passengers
discovered the identity of the slain person, the passengers entered their
vehicles and fled."
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.”
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