The Commandant of Nigeria Customs Training and Doctrine Command, Gwagwalada, Abuja, Assistant Comptroller-General (ACG) Adewale Adeniyi, said that his officers were forced to repel an attack by suspected hoodlums when their mission became known after a four-hour dialogue.
While taking journalists round the facility on Friday, Adeniyi said the officers did their best to pacify the mob that struck on Thursday.
He said some of the hoodlums had come on Monday to survey the facility, a day after a warehouse located in the Gwagwalada area was looted.
He said, “More than 4,000 of them laid siege in front of the command. We learnt about their arrival, we came out unarmed, we engaged them for four hours, we listened to them.
“They told us they were in search of palliatives, that they were hungry and angry, and we told them it is a training school and there are no palliatives here.
“They insisted that there were warehouses behind our command, they even requested to get free passage to search for the warehouses, we obliged them but with a condition for them to bring four of them for the search while some officers will conduct them round.
“They went and discovered there was no warehouse around the training school, some of them decided to break our perimeter fencing and started shooting.
“At this point, we now realised that they came around to attack and harm us, so we responded swiftly to repel the attack.”
ACG Adeniyi said with the support from the police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the attack was successfully repelled.
He confirmed that some Customs officers were injured during the attack while six of the attackers have been arrested.
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