BEVERLY HILLS, February 14, (THEWILL) – Confrontations between men of the Nigeria Customs Service and smugglers are not infrequent especially in border towns and communities. Early last month, the town of Saki-Ilesha Baruba in Kwara state witnessed one such face-off leading to the death of three people. Edobor Akaeze reports on the latest incident involving the local transport union and the Joint Border Drill (JBOD)…
The driver of a red Volkswagen Golf with registration number BDG 453 BH is used to passing through a checkpoint along Saki-Ilesha Baruba axis in Kwara state. A member of the local road transport union, he is quite familiar with the route and some of the anti-smuggling task force Joint Border Drill (JBOD) manning the checkpoint. But on January 8, something different happened.
According to him, he was flagged down by some JBOD officers of Sector 3 comprising the police and army – a task force run from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) Abuja.
The driver was returning from Sinawu, a trans-border market within the Nigerian territory, so saw no need to stop since he already paid ‘booking fees’ earlier to the checkpoint operatives on duty. The intention was to brush past the security men. But after making it a few meters past them, the driver had a change of heart, stopped and went back to men who stopped him.
The driver was then arrested. But rather than show remorse, the driver accused the operatives of mindless extortion as against a private arrangement the operatives have with the local drivers’ union and commercial motorcyclists in Ilesha-Baruba on their daily ‘booking fees’ of N200 and N500 at every toll mounted along the border.
The golf driver insisted that they weren’t supposed to flag him down since he was coming from Sinawu, a local market in the area, not from a trans-border trip and had already made payment earlier that day.
Miffed at the effrontery, men of the JBOD descended on the driver, giving him a beating of his life. The driver was, however, freed but not with his vehicle.
As events later turned out, the embattled driver had taken his matter to the local union of transporters in the border town. There was much anger over the incident not only from the drivers, but also from commercial cyclists and residents in the place because, according to them, there had been too much complaint about the activities of the men of the JBOD.
Ilesha-Baruba as a border settlement has most of its economic activities tied to farming and trading in food staples like yam flower, cassava, and other food items. Because of its proximity to Benin, it automatically attracts smuggling activities in second hand cars, foreign rice, bales of second hand clothing – all of them banned from entry by government to protect the local economy.
When news got to town how their members were maltreated, the local union took it upon themselves to exact punishment on JBOD. In no time, their numbers swelled and they proceeded to sack two mounted duty posts and the logistics office of NCS in the area.
Upon sighting an advancing mob by transporters in the area, the operatives opened fire, killing three of the protesters on the spot. From that point on, all hell broke loose. The protesters went back and began making bonfires on the highways.
A police officer was wounded by the mob. “After the killing of three people, the town rose against the operatives asking them to leave their ancestral lands,” a local chief told the newspaper, adding that residents were fed up with the activities of JBOD in Ilesha Baruba.
It took the intervention of the emir of Ilesha Buruba, Professor Halidu Abubakar, to douse tension. As gathered, the traditional ruler, upon learning of the fracas, got into his vehicle at about 9 pm. “I went about town calling the mob to order. I spoke to them like a father and they listened, even killed the fires and removed all the burnt debris from the road. I did not return to the palace until 1 am in the morning,” Prof Abubakar further said.
But when the JBOD Sector 3 made its official response on the incident, two days later, it was to deny the sequences of the events, and even denied killing people. The official statement made by Chado Zakari, Public Relations Officer of the NCS, Kware State Area Command and spokesman for JBOD Sector 3, insisted the JBOD Sector 3 operatives on duty, that day, acted professionally.
“Sector 3 security operatives at Ilesha Baruba flagged down a Volkswagen Golf Vehicle (Red Colour with Registration No BDG 453 BH).
“The driver refused to stop hence the operatives pursued the vehicle, apprehended and moved [the vehicle] back to the checkpoint for examination.”
Zakari, however, said that the driver of the vehicle “abandoned the vehicle and fled the scene,” during the pursuit.
He claimed that the vehicle contained bags of foreign parboiled Rice.
Continuing his account, he said the driver who “fled the scene of pursuit“ mobilized a large mob of organized smugglers and errant youths armed with sticks, stones and locally made weapons, attacked the operatives and overran the checkpoint.”
“At the time of the incident, information received from the Sector 3 Team Leaders on the ground at Ilesha Baruba indicate that three persons from the mob were killed during the attack, reportedly when their vehicle somersaulted when fired upon as they attempted to overrun the checkpoint,” Zakari said.
From THEWILL’s investigation, nine people were wounded through gunshots and three died. Two were very serious while others had peripheral wounds. One of those with bullets was treated at a cottage hospital in the town, the others with bullet wounds were taken to Kenu, a village in the vicinity for extraction of the bullets.
One of the victims seen at the traditional hospital in Kenu was shot at the left side of his jaw. He was still battling between life and death when the newspaper’s investigators visited.
Police and army commands have both insisted on probe of the incident
Ajayi Okasami of Kwara State Police Command confirmed that the fracas was between JBOD and the local motorists union in Ilesha Buraba. At the Ilesha Baruba command of JBOD, the newspaper learnt that the army men on duty were summoned to the Customs logistics office and were grilled by their superiors from Saki, Oyo state were an army formation is located.
When this newspaper contacted Zakari on these contradictory details on the account of January 8 and 9, the spokesman merely responded in a tacit text via his WhatsApp handle: “Customs have issued statement about what transpired. We cannot fabricate what we don’t know or did not happen. Everyone is entitled his or her own opinion.”
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