Officials of the Nigerian
Customs Service in Iyana Ipaja area of the state are currently under
investigation for murder. The Lagos State Police
Command carrying out the investigation said 30-year-old car dealer, Uririnke
Onojorhoevwo from Delta State was shot to death on June 16, 2013, after being
pursued by customs men attached to the Federal Operation Unit.
A few policemen
attached to Gowon Police Division, witnessed the incident, saying after the
killing, the customs men fled.
“On June 16, around 5am, we
saw customs men in a Toyota Hilux van with registration number, CS307A01,
chasing a white unregistered Audi Station wagon. The customs men shot the tyre
of the vehicle and also shot its driver,” a policeman, who craved anonymity,
said, “The driver, who was bleeding profusely, came out of the vehicle and
attempted to run. One of the customs men alighted from the Hilux, moved close
to the car dealer, and shot him again. They did not touch the corpse but
entered into their vehicle and fled immediately.”
The Punch reports:
The police source told PUNCH
Metro that policemen later recovered the corpse and took it to the station.
When asked if the deceased was
a smuggler, the policeman said there was no evidence to prove that he was.
He said, “After the killing, we
began preliminary investigation. We thought he was a smuggler but we decided to
search the vehicle. We discovered that all the relevant documents were intact
including the customs duty.
“We
also deduced that the deceased was driving from Idi-Iroko border and was heading
towards Lagos.”
Our correspondent learnt that
the matter had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department,
Yaba, for further investigation.
A source at the Homicide
Department at the SCID, told our correspondent that all attempts to get
information from the NCS proved abortive as it did not respond to a letter
written to it.
The source said, “We wrote a
letter to customs two weeks ago. We even made telephone calls to their
administration department, but they have not been forthcoming.”
The elder brother of the
deceased, Bakapo Onojorhoevwo, told PUNCH Metro that the deceased sold vehicles
for a living.
He said the deceased was based
in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and was probably heading towards there when he
was killed.
He said he was pained that his
brother was not married and had no children. He said the family would
like to know what transpired.
He said, “Around 7.30am on that
very day, I called my brother’s telephone but a policeman picked it up and told
me that my brother was involved in an accident and I should come to Mainland
Medical Centre, Yaba. I went there with my younger sister and we were told that
my brother had been killed by customs men.
“His corpse is still there and
we are waiting for autopsy. My brother has been dealing in cars for the past
four years. We do not know what actually happened so we want the customs to
explain to us.”
When contacted on the
telephone, Public Relations Officer, Federal Operations Unit, Zone A of the
NCS, Mr. Uche Ejesieme, said investigations were ongoing.
A text message he sent to our
correspondent read, “We are on top of the situation. Necessary and appropriate
steps will be taken in due course.”
No comments:
Post a Comment