Utweets
The Nigeria Customs Service has declined to comment on the reported kidnap and torture of three suspected informants by yet-to-be-identified smugglers. The Public Relations Officer of the service, Abdullahi Maiwada, stated that the agency was not interested in responding to allegations posted on social media. ...READ THE FULL STORY FROM SOURCE ↔️
Investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo, had posted several video clips of the victims being tortured by hoodlums, said to be smugglers.
Sunday PUNCH observed from the clips that the victims’ faces were swollen and their bodies stained with blood due to the beatings, which took place in an uncompleted building.
One of the hoodlums, while assaulting an unclad informant, said, “So, you called the customs!” while another attacker continuously hit the victim on his bloodied head with a hard object.
The victim was heard saying, “We called the Customs,” as he groaned in pain.
Staggering as if he would fall unconscious, another tortured informant said, “I work for the customs as an informant. They call me Ewe and I am a native of Oke-Odan, but I live in Owode. I was in the third Hilux that brought them (customs).”
As of the time of filing this report, Saturday PUNCH couldn’t confirm the whereabouts of the three men.
Soyombo added that he was not sure if the men were dead or alive.
While posting the videos, Soyombo said the three men had tipped off the NCS about the seizure of smuggled rice and petrol by Customs officials in Oja-Odan between November 12 and 13.
It was alleged that their identities were exposed by the NCS, allowing the suspected smugglers to trail, kidnap, and torture them.
When contacted by our correspondent to react to the videos, the spokesperson for customs, Maiwada, said he would not reply to any allegations involving Soyombo.
He said, “If you have an issue to raise with me as a journalist, I am ready to listen and answer you. But anything in recourse to him (Soyombo) or whoever you want to mention, I am not ready. I am too busy to be responding to social media allegations.
“You cannot wake up in the morning and write anything on X. Tomorrow, you write again, and next tomorrow, you cancel yourself. Later, you still say there was a mistake somewhere. I am too busy for that. I can answer any question you want to raise but not that kind.”
After the videos of the torture went viral, Nigerians voiced concerns over the treatment of the informants who only wanted to expose the smugglers’ activities.
A security strategist, Akin Adeyi, said, “They protect the whistleblowers who work for them but will expose whistleblowers who report their criminal operations. It is the same with the kind of systems the government is setting up for security agencies. For instance, they know if they give the public a responsive, responsible policing system, it will turn and bite them.”
Amid the allegations that NCS officials were aiding smugglers to allow the passage of rice and other items in large quantities into Nigeria, Soyombo said his life was also in danger for sharing the videos of the vehicles used in smuggling the goods.
“Customs officers are after my life,” he told our correspondent in the early hours of Friday. “The smugglers too are after my life, but to a lesser extent. As I have always said, death does not scare me. But we are in serious trouble if Customs officers are more offended than the smugglers,” he added.…READ THE FULL STORY FROM SOURCE
