HON AJIBOLA MURAINA LEADS DELEGATION TO DEMAND COMPENSATION FOR VICTIMS OF CUSTOM OFFICERS SHOOTING IN IBARAPA

Hon Dr Ajibola Muraina, the Member representing Ibarapa Central/ Ibarapa North Federal Constituency at the 9th House of Representatives on Thursday October 21, 2021 led a delegation which included Hon Sarafa Olaoniye, Hon Liasu Ololade and Hon Segun Okediji to demand compensation and public apology on behalf of families of persons killed and brutalised by the personnel of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, in Ibarapa communities in Oyo State recently.

The families of the Igangan, Igbo Ora, Ayete and Tapa victims of the barbaric acts of customs officers in the Ibarapa area of Oyo State demanded for
a total sum of N700m.

The demands were made before the
House of Representatives’ Committee on Customs and Excise being Chaired by Hon Leke Abejide at its second investigative hearing in Abuja where the leadership of the NCS and families of the victims made claims and counter claims over the incident

The investigation followed a motion moved by Hon Dr Muraina Ajibola demanding for an investigation into the killings and compensation of the victims’ families which were adopted and refered to the Committee for full Investigation.

Three persons who spoke on behalf of Igangan, Igbo Ora, Ayete and Tapa in the Ibarapa area of Oyo State, Shittu Ololade, Olusegun Okedeji and Sarafa Olaoniye relayed how the ugly incident happened and made their demands.

They demanded N100m for Muritala Ajasa, who was killed in the incident. They also demanded N95m for Hassan Sulikufuli who was killed. The sum of N80m was also demanded for each of Sunday Oluwari and one Mr Zhulikifi, who were also killed.

Those who sustained injuries were Samod Olayode, Damilola Adeleke and Idris Lamidi, for whom N75m each was demanded.

It was a heated session as the lawmaker and Customs disagreed over the Ibarapa incidents.

The lawmaker accused the Nigeria Customs Service personnel of abuse of powers as the officers said they had to defend themselves.

However, the Chairman of the Committee, Leke Abejide pointed out that the hearing was not to witch-hunt anybody but to see how the issues at stake could be resolved amicably in the interest of all parties.

Representing the Customs were the Deputy Comptroller General (Investigations) E. I. Edorhe;
Acting Comptroller, FOU, Zone A, H. K Ejibunu; and Officer-in-Charge of Iseyin Base, Ali Biu, among others.

The lawmaker representing the Ibarapa North/ Ibarapa Central Federal Constituency, Hon Dr Muraina Ajibola had earlier asked that the Customs officers who were directly involved in the shootings should be brought before the panel for questioning.

According to Hon Dr Ajibola, “the people that did the act should be here, if we want to be sincere and we want to get to the root of this matter. When we give uniforms to people as a nation, we do not ask them or license them to take the gun and the uniform and kill our people

“So, if some people misbehave and the parliament is looking into their misconduct, they must appear before the parliament to come and give an account of why they use our uniforms and weapons to kill citizens of our country

“Mr Chairman, I am moving a motion that even if we are able to conclude this matter today, there should be an opportunity for them to be brought before you, if not before the whole committee, so that we can question them to find out why they would have done such a thing.”

Hon Dr Ajibola Muraina also emphasized that given the tensed security situation then prevailing in Ibarapa as a result of the recent sacking of Ibarapaland by bandits, the customs men should have been much more circumspect in their patrols and operations in Ibarapa area around that time and that the manner in which that operation was carried out at that time was the height of administrative indiscretion and customs should be made to pay dearly for such blatant display of administrative indiscretion and recklessness. Officers of the Federal Operations Unit of the NCS had allegedly killed the persons in the attempt to arrest smugglers and seize smuggled parboiled rice in two Sports Utility Vehicles.