Ogun state alleged smugglers stormed the road leading to the governor’s office in Abeokuta on Tuesday to protest the killing of one of their members by members of the Nigeria Custom Service.
Reports have it that the suspected smuggler was shot and killed while three others were injured at Orile-Imo in Ogun state.
Speaking with newsmen on condition of anonymity, one of the smugglers said on several occasions when the rice or car goods arrived Ita-Osun Kobape area of Ogun state, they would always call on the Customs that their goods had arrived and they would be charged N5000 on every good before they move it in.
“Every time goods arrive Ita-Osun we put a call to them and they will come to collect money from us. We used to do this so that they will not disturb us and they will still go behind us by calling their colleagues from Ikeja-Lagos to accost us.
“After collecting money from us they will call their colleagues from Ikeja to come and accost us again. Sometimes they seize goods worth of N5 million from us depending on how many cars we are able to acquire per day. Every time they collect N5000 from us per car, if we are able to acquire 100 cars from our base at Ita-Osun , they collect N500,000,” he said.
“Today, we were done with our business at our base at Ita-Osun and we were on our way when they suddenly attacked us at Orile-Imo area of Sagamu, Ogun State where one of us Lekan was shot in the chest and stomach and three sustained injuries,” he lamented.
“We are here to appeal to the government to come to our aide, we don’t go to Cotonou to buy our cars and rice, we buy them here in Ogun and they cannot continue to kill us. This is what we know how to do, we can’t steal or do money ritual.
“We settle them every time we buy goods so that they won’t disturb us or us business.” he cried out.