Residents abandoned homes as customs officers’ storm community

Olufemi Adediran, Abeokuta

Residents of Fagbohun village in the Yewa South Local Government area of Ogun State have fled their houses following invasion by some operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

The customs operatives allegedly invaded the village in the middle of the night in search of the corpses of their slain colleagues and a missing rifle. After infiltrating the village,  the operatives allegedly took some residents away.

The invasion followed the killing of two customs officers. The two officers were believed to have been killed during a clash between suspected smugglers and NCS operatives in the village penultimate week.

Our reporter gathered that the slain officers, attached to the Federal Operating Unit (FOU) went to the Fagbohun village for an operation, but the smugglers, on sighting them, unleashed terror.

 

The corpse of one of the customs officers was later recovered from a river in neighbouring Ajegun Iyaloosa village. He was found without his rifle.

In what looked like a reprisal, some customs operatives invaded the village and reportedly set houses and motorcycles ablaze.

The rampaging operatives also ransacked the palace of the village head, Chief Simeon Fagbohun and allegedly looted.

Our reporter also gathered that the incident caused panic in the village, leading to villagers abandoning their homes and scampering for safety.

Speaking to journalists in Abeokuta, the state capital, the village head lamented that, villagers who fled their houses were yet to return for fear of being attacked and arrested by the operatives.

Counting the losses of the villagers, Fagbohun disclosed that about four houses were burnt while no fewer than seven motorcycles were set on fire by the men.

The village head alleged that the operatives carted away five water pumping machines, which the villagers had just bought for irrigation of their farms during the dry season. Also, the villagers alleged that about 20 machines meant for spraying herbicides on farms were also taken away by the operatives.

Fagbohun denied that the slain customs operatives were killed in his village, stressing that he and villagers didn’t know anything about the death of the custom officers.

The village head noted that, although the smugglers who attacked the customs officials had a stopover in his village, but "It’s not in our village that the customs officers were killed."

He insisted that the killing of the officers took place at Iya Sango, a village he said is about 5kilometre from Fagbohun village.

His words: “I’m here to clear some misinformation that I have read in the social media about our community and the death of some customs officers in that area. It’s not in Fagbohun village the customs officers were killed. It is in Iya Sango village, but the village is now deserted. It is the Ohori people that now stay in Iya Sango. They settled there and are farming. This village I’m talking about is in Yewaland, which is about 5km to Fagbohun village. This Iya Sango village is in Yewaland, while Fagbohun is a village these smugglers used to pass. It is the biggest village in that axis, which has vulcanizers and schools. The smugglers had a stopover in our village to fix their  tyres and to eat. They stopped at a place called Eti-Odo in Fagbohun village. The Custom Officers came to our place on the 26th of this month (October), by then my elder brother, Johnson Olarinde Fagbohun and I had gone to Ilaro. I stayed behind in Ilaro while my brother returned to the village. At 7pm, he called that he has been arrested by some customs officers. He said that they were taking him and others to an unknown destination. I was surprised by what he told me and when I asked why he was arrested, he said the operatives told him some smugglers killed customs officers.”

Fagbohun continued: “When I got to the village, I saw that they had burnt the house of Adeoye Fagbohun, one of the sons of Fagbohun families; he’s an elder brother to me. The customs operatives also burnt Adeoye three motorcycles. Adeoye is the person working as a vulcaniser at the junction to the village. In fact, his vulcanizing machine was burnt along with his house. Iya Alate's house was also burnt and there were three motorcycles in that house. The house of Nathaniel was also burnt with one motorcycle inside. These customs men entered the house of Akao’s family, brought out motorcycles and set them on fire. They also entered the house of  Odunaro, took motorcycles owned by people in the house and then burnt them outside as well. They didn’t burn Ogundipe's house, but they burnt his motorcycles. They went into my palace and looted it. I didn’t notice any motorcycle burnt in front of my palace, but I noticed that two motorcycles were missing from my house. The five pumping machines, which the farmers wanted to use for irrigation, were removed from their cartons. We had just bought them. We want to use it for irrigation in the dry season. Another set of seven machines, which we use to spray herbicides and other chemicals on farms were taken. All my doors were forced open.”

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Federal Operating Unit (FOU), Zone A, Ikeja, Lagos, Theophilus  Duniya, denied the allegation, saying that despite the loses recorded by the customs, the operatives did not take the law into their hands.

According to Duniya, seven suspects were arrested in possession of Dane guns and machetes, in connection with the killings of the customs officers. He revealed the suspects were in their custody as murder suspects.

His words: “The incident happened last week and some people were arrested in connection with the murder and we shall treat them as murder suspects. In as much as we seek to have justice for the slain officers, we cannot take the law into our hands by destroying people's property. The destructions were not executed by our operatives. Operatives of Customs service never burnt anybody's house or motorcycle. The only thing I know  on  authority that was done was the arrest of some suspects and they are in our custody. We have seven people in custody and some of them were arrested with Dane guns and machetes. They are assisting us with our investigation. The arson or whatever form of destruction that was carried  out in that village was done by mischief makers to tarnish the image of the service and our operatives. As I speak with you, one of our rifles is still missing.”