The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has demanded justice for the two-year-old girl killed by a stray bullet fired by men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in Ilaro area of Yewa, Ogun State.
Recall that the minor was hit by a bullet when the customs agents engaged a suspected smuggler at Itawaya, near the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro.
The spokesman of the NCS, Ogun 1 Area Command, Ahmed Oloyede, confirmed the incident, describing it as devastating, sad and sympathetic.
Reacting to the incident in a message made available to our correspondent on Monday, NANS considered the conduct of the NCS officers as “unprofessional and barbaric,” while seeking an enquiry into the cause of the indiscriminate shooting.
According to the statement signed by the NANS Chairman in Ogun, Damilola Simeon, it was requested that all officers found culpable in the incident should be held accountable before the law.
The student leader maintained that, “no Nigerian deserves to die an untimely and ugly death in the manner the life of the poor innocent child was cut short.”
Simeon expressed concern that the NCS in Ogun was yet to issue any responsible and compassionate statement about the incident.
“It is rather unfortunate that over three days after the sad incident, the state command of the customs service has not issued any responsible and compassionate statement to that effect. This has raised our suspicion that the command may be carrying out this deadly act deliberately on innocent residents of the axis to pass out their anger against smugglers on the people.
“It is on record that on many occasions, many Nigerians have been innocently killed in the course of operation of the customs officers in that zone of the state. And it is pertinent that all tiers of government from the federal down to the local governments in the Western zone of Ogun State take decisive actions collectively on finding a permanent solution to stop the killing of innocent people in that zone by men of the Nigeria Customs Service.
“Conclusively, we are demanding a responsive, accountable and detailed statement from the Nigerian Customs Service, Ogun Command, on the ugly incident and the name of all officers in the operations be publicised in the statement.
“This statement should concisely state the action of the command so far on the matter. Failure to do this within fourteen (14) days shall leave us with no choice but to protest massively against the command,” he said.
