Attacks on customs officials: Customs officers shot dead in Kebbi; Smugglers brutalise officer in Katsina

Two officers of the Nigeria Customs Service, Kebbi State Command were killed in the early hours of Thursday.

The deceased, Abdullahi Mohammed, Customs Assistant II, and A. K. Shehu, an Inspector, were killed while on patrol at Dakingari-Koko road area of the state.

Their killers also went away with one of the deceased’s AK-47 rifle.

The spokesman of the command, Mustapha Mubarak, said eight of their officers were on patrol duty along Dakingari-Koko road when they were attacked.

“We are still investigating the circumstances surrounding their death. No one knows what killed them yet,” he said.

Again, suspected smugglers have attacked and wounded an Inspector of Customs identified simply as Haruna A. while on patrol duties in the Dankama Area of Katsina State on Wednesday.

Public Relations Officer, Zone B, Nigeria Customs Service, Isah Sulaiman, who disclosed this in a statement on Friday, said the wounded officer was on patrol duties with some of his colleagues when they came under attack.

“It is pertinent to state that the Nigeria Customs Service is an agency that is saddled with the responsibility of enforcing government fiscal policies for collective societal good.

“The unit’s officers would not fold their arms and allow smugglers who have no regard for the laws of the land to perpetrate their nefarious activities to the detriment of our security and economic well-being.

“On this note, Comptroller FOU ‘B’, Musa Ibrahim Jalo, is very concerned about the injuries inflicted on his officer and directed a full-scale investigation to fish out the perpetrators of this barbaric act.

“He stated that any further attacks on any officer of the unit would not be tolerated and would be treated with utmost resistance from our operatives,” Sulaiman said in the statement.

He appealed to traditional rulers, parents and community leaders to warn their subjects to desist from attacking security operatives, as those caught will be made to face the consequences of their action.