Ambush In The Night: Rice traders spoiling for war with Customs, say raid was burglary

WITHIN the past two weeks, the Customs Service had laid siege to the Sango Garage Market in Ogun State, though without taking any concrete action. But at dawn, penultimate Wednesday, they struck while the traders were still at home preparing for the day’s business. By the time the traders arrived in the market they met empty shops. They claimed thousands of bags of rice were carted way by men of the Customs Service.

                                   

Col. Hameed Ali, Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service
photo credit: 247ureports.com

Till date the traders are still counting their losses. The aftermath of the invasion was chaotic as the traders and some hoodlums blocked the ever-busy Lagos- Abeokuta Expressway for more than seven hours, protesting what they referred to as an invasion.

Though relative peace has returned to the market, as the traders prepare for the next line of action, it is still an uneasy peace. The traders took their grievance to the Office of the Ogun State Governor at Oke Mosan, Abeokuta on Thursday, where the state Commissioner of Commerce and Industry, Bimbo Ashiru, who represented the governor during a meeting with them, assured of prompt intervention from the governor. The commissioner appealed for calm asking them to hold on till this week when a decision would be made on the issue.

The traders were miffed that not only were bags of rice carted away, about five hundred jerry cans of vegetable oil were also taken away in about 13 trucks. There have been conflicting figures from the traders and the customs authorities on the number of goods that were impounded.

A trader at the market, who did not want to be identified was angry at the Customs Service men, querying why they should come in the early hours of the morning when there was nobody to challenge them.

“They broke into shops and took away bags of rice in sixteen trucks. They shot into the air while the operation was going on. Some of the labourers who had come early in the morning were reportedly forced to help in loading the trucks with the bags of rice,” this is very bad, she said.

Another trader who simply identified herself as Mrs Fasinu claimed that she lost vegetable oil worth about N1.5 million to the Wednesday raid. She claimed to have just replenished the stock in her shop when the customs officers broke in.

The woman who claimed to have just finished her early morning prayers when she received the news of the invasion said that about 300 bags of rice and 70 jerry cans of 25kg vegetable oil were taken away from her shop.

She called on the government to come to her aid and save her life and those of other traders who are in a similar situation with her.

One of the leaders of the rice traders association popularly known as Iya Oloye, condemned the invasion and called on the government to put an end to constant harassment from men of the NCS.

The Babaloja of Sango Market, Sakirudeen Olasege, also condemned the invasion and called on men of the Customs Service to desist from further raids on the market. He described the impoundment of the rice and vegetable oil consignments as “burglary.”

The Public Relations Officer, FOU, Ikeja, Lagos, Jerome Attah, after the raid, tried to lay to rest the controversy over the actual number of bags of rice taken away by his men. According to him, only 1,870 bags of rice were taken away.

He explained that the unit responsible for the raid had been monitoring the activities of smugglers in the area before they struck, adding that suspected smugglers had been using motorcycles to transport smuggled bags of rice while Customs men had traced them to the market.

“We hired seven trucks to evacuate the smuggled bags of rice. Our men did not break into any shop,” he said without mentioning anything about the number of jerry cans of vegetable oil claimed to have been carted away by the Custom operatives.

But for the maturity displayed by the Area Commander in charge of the Sango Area Command, Adegoke Foyoade and the Divisional Police Officer in the area, Sola Ogunwale, during the protest, more casualties would have been recorded as the protest by the traders and hoodlums almost pitched them against the police.

The protesters, some of whom were armed with stones and sticks had blocked the road with broken benches, used tyres and stones. They rejected all entreaties by the Area Commander and the DPO to amicably resolve the issue. The appeal by the police bosses that the protesters should open the road for other road users failed. Not even the arrival of anti-riot policemen could deter the rampaging protesters.

Investigations by the Sunday Tribune, however, revealed that the Wednesday invasion was not new to the traders at the market. The Customs men had reportedly invaded the market in the past. On some of such occasions, they were able to seize a few bags of rice from buyers but they never broke into any shop.

It was also gathered that the Customs men had about two weeks ago stormed the market but could not impound any bag of rice.

One Stephen, a transport union member in Sango told Sunday Tribune that: “before now, the Customs officers had been waylaying commercial buses who loaded bags of rice from Sango to parts of Lagos State. They were seizing rice from people who came to buy in Sango.

“Sometimes last year, they came early in the morning and attempted to impound bags of rice from drivers and smugglers who were about to offload their goods at the Sango market. About two weeks ago, they came again with soldiers but they did not operate. They only surveyed the market and left. There was serious tension that day but the Customs officers left without impounding any bag of rice or keg of vegetable oil.

Credit: Tribune