The Eselu of Iseland, Oba Akintunde Akinyemi has threatened to take officers of the Nigeria Customs Service, Ogun Area Command 1, to court if they fail to apologise over the killing of a farmer in the community within 14 days.
The monarch also demanded that the NCS should recant the allegation against the slain farmer as a smuggler who was killed by a stray bullet from customs men.
Akinyemi spoke with The PUNCH on Monday while reacting to the statement made by the Public Relations Officer of the NCS, Ogun Command 1, Abdullahi Maiwadah.
Maiwada had in a statement on Sunday alleged that some suspected smugglers unleashed a vicious attack on his officers while on a routine anti-smuggling patrol along Eselu in Igua Area of Yewa North Local Government Area of the state.
The NCS PRO said the customs officials successfully repelled the attack which led to the death of one of the smugglers.
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But the monarch disagreed with the customs spokesman, saying they killed an innocent farmer, Kehinde Ogunji, a 25-year-old, who was coming back home from his farm.
He said, “The claim that a smuggler was killed in Igua community is very wrong. The community where customs killed an innocent person is Eselu community, Igua to be precise. The person killed is Kehinde Ogunji, a 25-year-old man, he was coming from the farm with his twin brother.
“As I’m talking to you, the matter is in Oja-Odan Police Station. Everybody was there, they invited the customs there yesterday, the two customs officers who shot the deceased also made their statement.
“For the PRO to have given false information to the public that they killed one smuggler in Eselu while they were trying to attack them was far from the truth.
“I want to use this opportunity to tell him that within 14 days, he should retract that statement and tell the public that what he said was not true. If he refused to re-publish it, then we are ready to go to court with him. The deceased left five children and two wives.”
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the police command had begun an investigation into the matter.
He said, “The commissioner of police has directed that the case be transferred to the homicide section of the State Criminal and Investigation Department where a discreet investigation will be carried out.”
