Ilesha Baruba Killing: Customs Fingered Smugglers, Warns Residents Against Aiding Smuggling

The Joint Border Operations Drillhas called on parents, guardians, community leaders, religious leaders and opinion-moulders in the area, to caution their wards against violence as the sector execute its mandate to rid the nation of smuggling activities.

The Coordinator of Joint Border Operations Drill sector 3, Comptroller Olugboyega Peters made this call while reacting to dispute that occurred at Ilesha Baruba axis on Friday.

He started that the sector would do everything humanly possible, within the ambit of the law, to protect government property and ensure that peace prevailed at all cost.

The Nigeria Customs Service, Kwara Command, Public Relations Officer, Zakari Chado, stated this in a statement issued on Saturday in Ilorin, after a mob attack on its sector 3 check point and operational base in Ilesha-Baruba area of the state, left three persons dead and some others injured.

Chado said information received from the Sector 3 team leader in Ilesha-Baruba indicated that the three persons were part of the mob that attacked the check point and attempted to overrun the base.

The attack according to him started after men of the sector pursued and successfully apprehended a Volkswagen Golf Vehicle which had earlier refused to stop when flagged down at a checkpoint along Saki – Ilesha Baruba axis.

The driver, who abandoned the vehicle filled with smuggled bags of foreign parboiled rice and fled the scene, mobilised a large mob of organised smugglers and errant youths, armed with locally made weapons.

The mob attacked the operatives, overran the checkpoint, set it ablaze and injured a policeman in the process.

A further attempt to overrun the major Operational Base in Ilesha-Baruba, where arms and ammunition, vehicles, seizures and other operational items were kept, was however met with stiff resistance from the operatives in the process of which the victim’s car somersaulted, leading to the death of the victims.

The PRO said that the situation was eventually brought under control at about 4 am, while the Emir has held a meeting with all stakeholders where he appealed for restraint.