By Uzor Odigbo
A suspected rice smuggler on Tuesday met his waterloo while trying to evade arrest by Customs officers along Del/Owode Ketu in Ogun State.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ogun 1 command, Hameed Oloyede, disclosed this to the media.
According to him, a combined patrol team attached to the command on information, went on patrol around Yewa North Local Government Area and intercepted a motorcycle ladened with foreign bags of rice (50kg each).
He said that the rice and the means of conveyance were taken to the patrol base, leaving some officers behind to be on surveillance for another information.
“On reaching a bush path of the same area, some suspected smugglers on motorcycles (popularly known as Okada) laden with some bags of 50kg foreign parboiled rice, on sighting the officers ran away in convoy to evade arrest.
“With the their speed rate and the state of the road, one of the suspected smugglers summersaulted, hit his head on the ground, while the motorcycle with some bags of 50kg foreign parboiled rice fell on him and was discovered dead on the spot.
“Consequently, the corpse was taken to mortuary by the Police, while the motorcycle with the uncustomed goods were taken to Police Station for further investigation.
Oloyede added that in retaliation,, some unscrupulous youths resorted to unleashing mayhem on Customs personnel, burnt a patrol base, and took away one of the intercepted motorcycles.
“On getting the report, the Customs Area Controller immediately called for reinforcement from other Customs patrol teams, Border drill and Nigeria Police whose combined effort brought the situation under control. As at the time of this report, normalcy has returned to the area;” he said.
