Ogun Assembly Condemns Alleged Incessant Killings By Customs

Ogun State House of Assembly on Tuesday condemned the incessant killing of innocent citizens of the State by men of the Nigerian Customs Service describing it as a dastardly act.

The lawmakers in their various submissions during today’s plenary lamented the alleged killing of a commercial driver Saubana Koleoso, whose vehicle while being pursued and allegedly shot at by customs men swerved to cause another accident having collided with an on-coming car causing the death of two others at Kobape area along Sagamu-Siun Expressway last week.

Members including the Majority Leader, Adeyinka Mafe, Honourables Ganiyu Oyedeji, Akinpelu Aina, Idowu Olowofuja and Bowale Solaja called on the Federal Government to step up measures at checking the excesses of the Nigerian Customs Services which had in recent time resulted to loss of innocent lives and properties in the State.

Other Honourable members like Adebiyi Adeleye, Olusola Sonuga, Adeyemi Harrison, Oludare Kadiri and Tunde Sanusi called on the agency to  restrict their operations to border areas, saying there was a need for them to carry out their operation with utmost professionalism and discretion to avoid loss of life.

According to the assembly men, nobody supported economic sabotage but the officers and men of the Nigerian customs must ensure more sanity at boarder communities in line with their statutory duties describing the incident as an extra-judicial killing by the customs which must be investigated.

Responding , the Speaker, Rt. Hon Suraju Ishola Adekunbi commiserated with the families of the victims and described the action of the men of the Nigeria customs as unacceptable, assuring that government especially the Assembly as part of its quasi-judicial functions would engage the agency towards ensuring more professionalism in the discharge of their duties.

He said that the agency needed to put human face and adopt discretionary power in carrying out its operation, warning that government would not watch its citizens to be killed all in the name of pursuing smugglers.

He therefore directed that another invitation be forwarded to the State Comptroller of Customs to appear before the House of Assembly so as to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the unfortunate events resulting in deaths of innocent citizens.

In a related development‎, Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun has forwarded two bills to the House of Assembly which included, “A bill for a law to make provisions for the Administration of Criminal Justice in the High Courts and Magistrates’ Courts of the State and for other related matters”.

The second bill reads, “A bill for a Law to provide for the resolution of disputes by arbitration and other Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms as well as the establishment of Ogun Court of Arbitration and for connected purposes”.

The Speaker, Rt. Hon. Suraju Ishola Adekunbi, who read the Governor’s letters, dated 13th March, 2017 conveying the bill to the Assembly submitted that the Governor’s decision was approved in the Seventh meeting of the State Executive Council held on the 13th February, 2017.

Meanwhile, Speaker Adekunbi has called on the State Ministry of Works to liaise with its Federal counterpart to ensure the commencement of works on the Ogijo- Sagamu road contract said to have been approved last year.

The call followed the submission of the Majority Leader Hon. Adeyinka Mafe,  who raised the issue of the Federal road linking Ogijo to Sagamu which he noted had been awarded by the Federal Government but yet to commence construction works