No fewer than ten (10) customs officers were burnt beyond recognition in an explosion which occurred while attempting to intercept smugglers who resisted arrest and blew up a large boat carrying crude oil.
Mr Jacob Gyang Buba, Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) who briefed newsmen yesterday at the Western Marine Command NCS, Lagos said that the incident took place at about 10.00 a.m. yesterday.
As at the time of filing in this report, seven of the roas-ted bodies have been recovered.
According to the customs boss the incident took place at the Ilado water creeks under the Ojo local government area in Lagos where some seizures were made recently.
Daily Trust recalled that barely a week ago, a similar incident took place in Lagos when a team of the Federal Operating Unit (FOU) zone A, Lagos on their way back from an anti-smuggling operation was attacked, by gun-men leaving one customs officer dead.
While announcing the incident at the opening ceremony of the 2004 annual Comptroller General conference in Calabar, the Comptroller-General, Mr Jacob Gyang Buba noted that with that incident, the conference was starting on a sad note.
The Comptroller-General said that it was the three officers of the western marine command team that escaped death who contacted their command and alerted the headquarters.
These include Alfred A. Oyobole and Richard Akin-kud who gave an eyewitness account of the incident after swimming to safety and trekking for hours.
According to them, a large boat containing large quantity of crude oil was intercepted by the customs men who then called for re-enforcement with more patrol boat.
Upon the arrival of the smaller customs patrol boats, the smugglers were also reported to have contacted other smaller boats which surrounded the scene.
The smugglers were reported to have said that it was either that they (smugglers) were allowed to go or they all die together, there after there was an explosion.
Apart from the nine roasted customs officers, policemen, state security service agents and other security personnel who were alerted during the incident were also said to have died in the inferno.
Wives and other family members of the deceased customs officers are yet to be contacted but a lady suspected to be relative of one of the deceased was heard sobbing at the gate of the western marine command NCS.
The five roasted bodies were taken from the scene of the inferno and brought to the Western Marine Comm-and in a small patrol boat belonging to the NCS.
It would be recalled that at the just concluded 2004 Comptroller-General of customs annual conference which took place at Calabar, one of the issues raised was the need to get better arms and ammunition for the officers of the NCS to enable them combat smugglers.
When Daily Trust visited the scene of the inferno at about 5.30 p.m. about eight charred bodies were seen still floating around.
The pipeline from which the crude oil was being siph-oned was also being repaired by some NNPC workers. A large number of jerry-cans were also seen, some of whi-ch were floating on the water.
Also three patrol boats belonging to the customs service were seen sinking. |
|
