At least three people have been reportedly shot dead in the Iseyin Local Government Area of Oyo state while two were seriously injured on Thursday during an alleged sporadic shooting by men of Nigerian Customs Services (NCS).
According to an eyewitness who spoke to newsmen, the NCS men intercepting suspected smuggled goods coming through the borders resulted in shooting sporadically during which stray bullets from their gunshots hit the five victims.
A resident of Iseyin, Hassan Abiodun, who also spoke to newsmen said, “I heard that the bullets, whether stray ones or not, hit five persons. Four were initially thought to have died, while one person was injured. But one of the four persons initially thought to have died was resuscitated. So, I can tell you that three persons died and two persons were fatally injured. But there may still be some people hit by the stray bullet that has not shown up.
“I must tell you that a similar incident occurred in the same town of Iseyin some months ago. The indiscriminate shooting by the operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service led to a face-off between them and members of the proscribed Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), then, the chairman of the union in Iseyin was hit by a bullet from the customs officers”.
According to Abiodun, most of those hit by the bullets at the Ojaba area was said to be going out on Eid-el Fitri celebration to meet their friends and relations before they ran into the tragedy.
Sources said that tension was still mounting in the town as family and friends of the victims have started protesting.
The Aseyin of Iseyin land, Oba Abdulganiyy Adekunle Salau, in his reaction, lamented the killing of the youths by men of the Nigeria Customs Service in Iseyin.
The monarch who spoke through his media aide, Semiu Azzez, asked officers of the NCS to keep 40 kilometres away from the border of the town henceforth.
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