The Nigeria Customs Service, Ogun Area Command, on Friday tackled National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) Ogun axis over their allegation of arms smuggling, asking them to focus on their studies.
The National Association of Nigerian Students had on Thursday raised the alarm that there was smuggling of arms in the state.
But the Customs, in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Hammed Oloyede, denied the allegation and cautioned NANS against levelling “malicious allegations” of purported arms smuggling against the command.
Describing the students’ claims as lies capable of misleading and likely to create unnecessary tension in the state, the NCS said, “there has never been a time when arms and ammunition were allowed to be smuggled into the country through Ogun State and it will not be allowed to be smuggled in whatever form.”
Oloyede maintained that the command had since fortified the numerous illegal routes through which contrabands were smuggled into the country with aggressive patrols and had stepped up its anti-smuggling operations in the state to checkmate the nefarious activities of the enemies of the state.
The Ogun Custom’s spokesman said “the allegation of smuggling activities taking place during the daytime is only in the imagination of the fabricator of the story.”
He added, “Inasmuch as the command does not want to take issue with the so-called students, their sponsors and collaborators, we want to advise them to focus and concentrate on their studies and school activities so that they graduate in record time and be better citizens tomorrow, instead of offering and allowing themselves to be used as tools for blackmail of an individual and government institution.”
Sumuggling activities by smugglers in Ogun State of Nigeria is unprecedented throug motorcycles and vehicles 24/7. The students allegations of massive smuggling to the country through ogun State axis deserve discreet investigation by an independent body other than the NCS.