The deceased's son, Liberty, said his mother was a pillar to the family and wants the Customs officers who killed his mother to be prosecuted.
On Tuesday, November 20, 2018, Customs officers attached to Seme Border, led by one Abu Yusuf tried to evacuate bags of smuggled rice around F. O. Filing Station in the Badagry area, Lagos State when they allegedly Patience Oni.
Reports claim that Patience Oni had gone to the market situated around F. O. Filing Station in the Badagry area when she was hit by a stray bullet allegedly fired into the air by the officers who tried to scare people from preventing the evacuation of those bags of rice.
According to Punch Metro, Patience was then taken to Badagry General Hospital where she battled for dear life. It was there she gave her phone to someone who called her husband, John Oni, 45, a police inspector. By the time he got there though, his wife had passed on.
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John said, “A good Samaritan, who was at the scene of the incident, called to inform me that my wife had been shot. When I rushed to the scene, I was told that she was still alive and that the Customs officers had rushed her to the Badagry General Hospital. I am yet to recover from the shock of not meeting her alive when I got to the hospital.
“I learned that the Customs officers were chasing after some smugglers carrying rice before they opened fire on some boys, who reportedly struggled with them. I was told that my wife was at the bus stop close to a filling station around the Badagry roundabout where she was hit by a stray bullet from the Customs officers’ guns.
“I want the government to help me fight for my right because my late wife was my helper. I have four children who are still in school, and I don’t know how I will cope without her. My life is ruined.”
Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Chike Oti, confirmed the details of the event that, “On Tuesday, November 20, 2018, around 1 pm, a team of Nigeria Customs Service officers attached to the Seme Border Command, led by DSC Abu Yusuf, while on ‘Anti-Flying Operations’ at the Badagry roundabout by F.O. Filling Station along the Lagos/Badagry Expressway, allegedly fired indiscriminately in the area.
“Consequently, bullets hit two bystanders, identified as Patience Oni, 42, and Jimoh Aminu, 43. The injured victims were rushed to the Badagry General Hospital for treatment, where the former eventually died. The remains of the deceased were deposited in the hospital’s morgue for autopsy. Meanwhile, the seven Customs officers have been arrested and handed over to homicide detectives at the State Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department for a thorough investigation.”
Public Relations Officer, Seme Border Command, NCS, Saidu Abdullahi, said, “The command regrets the accident; we pray that the soul of the deceased rest in peace and hopes that the family is granted fortitude to bear the loss. Based on the incident report, the officers were carrying out their statutory duty. They found out that there were over 120 bags of rice in a warehouse around F. O. Filling Station.
“So, the officers went there to evacuate the rice and in the process of moving the evacuated items back to the station, they were waylaid by a mob.
“In order to get out, they fired some shots in the air, which unfortunately resulted in the death of that woman. The officers were shooting in the air to scare the crowd so that they could move the items. The woman who died that day was just an unfortunate victim; we were later informed that the team took her to the hospital where she died.”
The deceased’s son, Liberty, said his mother was a pillar to the family and wants the Customs officers who killed his mother to be prosecuted. 38-year-old Ruth said Patience’s death was untimely and wants justice to prevail in the matter.
PUNCH Metro also reports that another man, 43-year-old Jimoh Aminu was also, “Hit by the stray bullets allegedly fired by the customs officers during the operation but survived.”
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