The Alliance for Democracy (AD) governorship candidate in the 2019 election in Oyo state, Engr. Hakeem Alao, on Friday demanded the probe of the recent killing of five persons in Iseyin by the personnel of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) .
Alao in a statement by his media spokesman, Omotayo Iyanda, declared that the killings were unacceptable, condemnable and should be properly investigated as there was no basis for the Customs officials to resolve sporadic gun duels within the town.
The statement read in part, “Killing four Nigerian citizens inside the town of Iseyin in a disagreement by customs officials is arbitrary, appalling and nauseating.
How on earth should Customs leave the border posts and start chasing people all about in the town? Why forceful entry into the people’s shops overnight and carting away their goods? This is not only embarrassing but also an insult on our collective sensibility as citizens of this country.
“The action of the Customs official chasing people around in town and killing them could lead to a serious crisis, breakdown of law and order and chaos should people react violently in a mob action against the excesses of the customs officials.”
He said further that the time had come for men of the Nigeria Customs to realise that “selective operation of chasing rice smugglers in the South-west, which hardly happens in the North, is one of the issues causing suspicion, mistrust and agitations in some parts of the country.”
“In the interest of national cohesion and unity of Nigeria, the Customs should refrain from all conducts that would make people feel that some people are citizens than the others. We can only hope that our customs officials would not make us feel that some people are equal than the others as narrated in Animal Farm by George Orwell.”
