Suspected Smugglers Attack Customs Officers Along Sokoto/Illela Border

• Patrol Vehicle Burnt During Mob Attack

By Theophilus Oyekanmi, Lagos

Scores of Customs Officers were on Thursday attacked by alleged smugglers in a village along the Sokoto/Illela border, destroying a patrol vehicle.

Though Customs officer was killed, maimed, or wounded during the attack which occurred at a Customs Check Point in Asara Village along the Sokoto/Illela Border Road a patrol van belonging to the officers and other seized vehicles were burnt.

According to a statement made available to journalists by the Command Public Relations Officer (CPRO), Assistant Superintendent of Customs (ASC1), Balarabe Yusuf, the attack was the aftermath of a vehicle carrying contraband items, tried to evade Customs officers’ stop and check at the point, by Team A of the command.

 “The team A, based on intelligence discovered that the car was carrying contraband goods and in effort to evade being stopped and searched an accident occurred as there was a head-on collision with another oncoming vehicle from another direction.

 “Only one passenger in the bus and not four persons died during the accident where one officer also narrowly escaped being knocked down by the vehicle at the scene of the accident. Others however sustained various degrees of injuries,” the Customs spokesperson said.

“In the new, officers of the Nigeria Customs Service, Sokoto/Zamfara States Command’s mobile Team ‘A’ based on credible intelligence of some smuggled goods, mounted a stop and search operation at Asara village along Sokoto Illela Road.

“At about 08.00hrs a vehicle, Toyota Avensis with tinted glass believed to be conveying smuggled items was flagged down for search but the driver upon sighting officers tried to escape and in the process almost knock down one of the officers who quickly jumped out of his way.

“However, some unscrupulous elements who disguised as sympathisers mobbed our officers at the point and in the process set one patrol vehicle and a car belonging to one of the officers ablaze,” Balarabe said.

 “In order to curtail the situation from further escalation, the Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Abdulhameed Ma’aji sent a reinforcement team who succeeded in restoring law and order in the area.

“The Area Controller while sympathising with the victims of the accident, appealed to the general public to always support the Service in its effort to block all un-custom goods from coming into the country through our borders”, Comptroller Ma’aji was quoted as saying.