Customs in Trouble for Allegedly Shooting ‘Unarmed’ Badagry Indigenes

A member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Badagry Constituency 1, Hon. Ibrahim Olanrewaju Kayode has accused the officers of Nigeria Customs Service of shooting at three indigenes of Badagry.

This is even as a member representing Badagry Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Babatunde Hunpe, has urged residents to remain calm over the shootings by Customs.

In a press statement issued by the lawmaker, the shooting occurred around Inogi, along Owode Apa Road on Tuesday 3rd of September , 2019.He described the shooting as a crime against the common humanity of his constituency.

DAILY TREND NEWS gathered that the affected individuals namely; Afeez Sannumi, 23, a student of Kankon Secondary School, and Yinusa Olatunji, the driver of a Mazda vehicle are receiving treatment at the Badagry General Hospital, while the third victim, Michael Amore, an SS2 student of the same school, is on admission at the Harmony Hospital, Badagry.
Hon. Ibrahim Olanrewaju Kayode  said

“In as much as we will continue to encourage the men of the Nigerian Customs to carry out their responsibilities as statutorily required of them, we need to emphasize here that it has to be done with every sense of decency”

“Let me echo it here unequivocally that it has become a recurring decimal for the men of the Nigeria Customs to shoot our unarmed indigenes in Badagry at any slightest provocation”

“This is not in reality with International Best Practices and consequently, it is absolutely unacceptable and hereby condemned in its entirety as it is an affront to our common humanity”

“The shooting of the 3 individuals will not be swept under the carpet. We shall get to the root of it and ensure the officer faces the full scale of the law”
“May I register here that my thoughts and prayers are with the affected individuals as I wish them quick recovery.We can assure our people that their security is guaranteed and they should go about with their legitimate businesses”

Meanwhile, Hon Hunpe on his part made sue for calm when he visited victims of the shooting at the General Hospital and Harmony Hospital in Badagry.

Hunpe, while addressing relatives of the victims at the hospitals in Badagry, urged them to be patient, calm and cooperate with the security agencies in performing their lawful duties.

He said the restriction of the land border was to secure lives and property around the border, adding that it was for the country’s good.

“As I earlier appealed for calm when the restriction of movement of goods started about 16 days ago, I also want you to cooperate with the security agencies mounting the border posts.

“This is because the restriction is to secure the lives and property of Nigerians. It is for our own good.

“I have met the Customs Comptroller of the Seme Border Command and discussed with him on the need to educate his men on how to relate with our people.

“It is not all things that they have to react to because they should be aware of the present economic situation of the country,” he said.

The lawmaker described the September 4 incident as unfortunate because the students involved were not smugglers.

“It is only God that knows what happened; I don’t want to judge, and I don’t want to apportion blame to anyone.

“Mine is that they should both learn from the incident. The law enforcement agencies and the residents should learn to tolerate one another.

“The law enforcement agencies will continue to do their work, while we in the community will stay in a place that God has given us; we need to understand each other,” Hunpe said.

According to him, the job of the security agencies should be felt most at the border post and not within the community.

“I am appealing to the security agencies to take things easy with the residents. All we need is to educate both on the need to tolerate themselves,” he said.

He promised to table a motion to address the country’s land border issues on the floor of the House.