The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and National Association of Ogun State Students (NAOSS) on Monday issued seven–day ultimatum to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), to remove the Comptroller of Ogun State Command, Michael Agbara, over alleged reckless and incessant killing of students in the state by operatives under his jurisdiction.
NANS and NAOSS in a statement jointly signed by the National Vice President of NANS, Comrade Ojo Raymond and the National President of NAOSS, Comrade Gbemileke Ogunronmbi in Abeokuta, asked the Comptroller General of the NCS, Hameed Ali, to remove the Ogun Controller or face the full wrath of the entire students of the country.
The students’ bodies were apparently reacting to the alleged serial killing of innocent students by the NCS Operatives, the latest victim being a 15 – year old Rilwan Bello who was killed on May 1, 2020, at Owode – Idiroko, when stray bullets fired by the Operatives struck him on the head.
Bello was a Junior Secondary School Students of Area Community High School, Owode.
The students’ bodies bemoaned the incessant killings of students and other residents of various Ogun State border communities in the name of fighting smugglers, describing the state command of the NCS as constituting grave risk to the lives and safety of residents.
The grieving NANS and NAOSS, threatened to defy the lockdown order of both the Federal and the Ogun State governments and mobilise students across the nation to occupy the NCS Command in Ogun State in protest until Agbara is removed.
The statement reads: “We want to assure the NSC Comptroller General, Hameed Ali that this is not an empty threat. If the Ogun State Controller of the NSC, Michael Agbara is not removed before Monday, May 18, the entire students across the country will mobilise en masse and occupy the headquarters of the State Command of the NSC.
“We are not asking the men of the Nigerian Customs Service not to do their job, but we don’t want the killings of our people all in the name of fighting smugglers. The way in which the men of the Nigerian Customs Service discharge their duties in Ogun State is not only recklessness but also dangerous.
“We have explored all available means of cautioning the officials of the State NCS but they have continued to perpetrate this evil. It high time your men stopped this inhumane treatment on our people.”
The students’ bodies also condemned the silence of Senator Tolu Odebiyi, the Senator representing Ogun West Senatorial district to the killings of his constituents by the men of the NCS.
“We see Senator Odebiyi’s silence as an indirect approval and encouragement to the evil being perpetrated by the men of the NCS to the killings of his constituents otherwise what will you call Odebiyi’s refusal to openly condemn the acts of NCS men if not indirectly condoling them?”