Following the alleged invasion of their stores by about 30 officials
of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone
A, Ikeja, accompanied by soldiers, market women, who deal in parboiled
rice at Mile 2 Oke/Under-bridge Market, in Amuwo-Odofin Local Government
Area of Lagos State, staged a peaceful protest to the head office of
Vanguard Media Limited, yesterday.
The
women, who wept uncontrollably, complained that the armed Customs men
and soldiers, who drove in two trucks, invaded their stores at about
1.00am yesterday, carting away about 1,200 bags of rice.
Speaking through Mrs Suwebatu Akorede, the women, who arrived the
Vanguard’s office at about 1.00pm, lamented that the Customs men and
soldiers broke into their stores without indicating what their offences
were.
Akorede said, “The armed security operatives met our workers who
slept in the market, when they drove in at about 1.00am. During their
operation, they beat our workers up and even injuring two of them with
gun butts. They drove away with two-trailer load of bags of parboiled
rice, as well as cartons of juice drinks, that we had in our stores.”
When Sunday Vanguard visited the market around 3.00pm
yesterday, the market women, numbering over 100 wore forlorn faces, even
as others were seen discussing in hushed tones.
Semiu Akeem, one of the workers who alleged that he was beaten by the
armed security operatives, said: “I was sleeping when the Customs
officials and soldiers woke me at about 1.00am. After identifying myself
as a worker in the market, one of the soldiers started ransacking my
pockets. When I asked what the problem was, what I saw was that he used
his gun’s butt to hit me on my knee. At that moment, the soldier took
from me the N150, 000 that I had on me, as well as my two phones.”
Semiu added that “after the armed security operatives finished
loading their two trucks with the bags of parboiled rice, they drove me
and three of my co-workers to the Customs office at Ikeja.”
Also speaking, another trader, Mrs Chi Okeke said: “We pay Customs
duty to bring in our rice through the Seme border. So, we are surprised
that the same Customs officials who had collected duty from us will
still come to invade our stores and carting away our products.”
Chairman of the market, Mr. Idowu Akanbi, said: “We have gone to
Customs office at Ikeja to bail our workers that were arrested, and they
asked us to come back on Monday, to secure their release, stating that
it was already weekend.”
When contacted, the spokesperson, NCS, FOU, Zone A, Ikeja, Uche
Ejesieme said: “Sequel to an intelligence information, that large
quantity of smuggled goods were kept in an open location at Mile 2, the
headquarters monitoring team led by Assistant Comptroller Jatau Micah
swooped on the location in an operation that lasted between 01.30am to
03.30am of Saturday.
“The team evacuated 580 bags of suspected smuggled 50kg parboiled
rice and 151 pieces of used tyres. The seized items and the suspects
have been brought down to our facility in Ikeja for further
investigation. On the joint operation with the Army, it is in line the
policy of inter agency synergy and there is nothing untoward about
that.”
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