For those living at Nigeria’s smuggling corridors, the sound of speeding vehicles or gunshots is no longer strange. These people are used to such sound like new babies to suckling. While the Nigeria Customs Service has a legal mandate to combat smuggling, the decision to pursue suspected smugglers into populated communities, sometimes, at dangerous speeds and with firearms discharged, raises a difficult question: where does legitimate enforcement end and unacceptable risk to innocent lives begin? The growing concern is, therefore, not whether smugglers should be stopped, but how they should be stopped without putting the lives of ordinary Nigerians at unnecessary risk, GBENGA SALAU writes.
Jibia Town, Katsina State. August 2021, a Customs border patrol vehicle driving at high speed while chasing a suspected rice smuggler lost control and plowed into a group of roadside bystanders and villagers, leaving multiple dead and over 20 others with severe injuries.
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Earlier in July, along the Daura–Kano Road in Jigawa State, a suspected smuggler attempting to evade arrest struck and killed a customs officer during a stop-and-search operation.
Recently, in Oko-Afo, Badagry, Lagos State, precisely, in July, 2026, during an operational pursuit of a commercial bus suspected to carry contraband rice, customs operatives reportedly discharged firearms in a populated street, resulting in a stray bullet striking and killing an innocent resident and injuring two others.
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Similarly, sometime in November 2024, Obada Idi-Emi, Ogun State, was buried in grief, as a civilian bystander was killed by a stray bullet during an intense exchange of gunfire by Customs personnel and suspected smugglers.
In Ota-Idiroko Road, Ogun State, around May 2017, a high-speed pursuit and subsequent shootout at the Onibuku junction led to civilian and suspect casualties.
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The list is endless.
However, one of the most widely reported incidents occurred during the 2021 Eid-el-Fitr period in Iseyin area of Oyo State.
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According to residents and media reports, customs officers were pursuing a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) allegedly transporting smuggled rice through Iseyin when officers opened fire.
Several civilians were reportedly killed and others injured. This incident sparked widespread protests. One of the persons who lost his life in the Iseyin incident was Ibrahim Onisile, whose wife had a six week baby she was nursing when he died from customs stray bullet.
Onisile was not the only victim, others included 31 year-old Tobi Opeyemi; Abdullahi Abdulazeez, who was said to be 32 years at the time of the incident and Timothy Gbadegesin, a 34-year-old commercial tricycle rider.
Findings revealed that Gbadegesin was fixing his motorcycle tyres when a gunshot from customs hit him. He died on the spot.
However, five years after the Iseyin incident, the mother of one of the victims, Lady Evangelist Bosede Akinlotan, narrated how the incident happened and how it has inflicted pains on the family, disclosing that the customs officers were chasing smugglers when the incident occurred.
She also added that the families of the victims were promised N20 million as compensation, which they have not received, though they were told that government has released the money, to whom, they do not know.
Akinlotan said: “He was with me before the incident. But shortly after the bullet hit him, I was called that he was hit by a bullet from Customs officers and he died along with the Okada rider who was carrying him to the hospital. We were invited to Abuja after the member of House representing us had raised the issue on the floor of the National Assembly and we went.
Through our lawyer, all the victims’ families were promised N20 million. The N20 million was also to cater for a victim of similar incident in Ibarapa. However, we have not got anything despite we went to Abuja twice over the matter. Though, we later learnt that the money had been paid, which we never received anything.”
Akinlotan disclosed that his son was 30 years when the incident occurred and had three children.
She revealed that his late son’s wife remarried after the incident and left the three children in her care.
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According to her, his son, Samson Oluwatobi Akinlotan, was a bricklayer at the time the incident occurred.
She revealed that despite the burden of nurturing her three grandchildren since the demise of their father, God has been faithful in taking care of the children. She said the three children are 10, 12 and 14 years.
She also provided some insight to the tragedy that occurred when they were trying to get a compensation.
According to her, one of those leading the advocacy for parents of victims to be compensated, Kola Bello, died in an accident a week to when we were told the N20 million compensation would be paid.
Akinlotan, however, revealed that the House of Representative member representing Iseyin when the incident happened pledged to support the upkeep of the children, which he has not relented in doing till date.
“There have been several incidents that have happened after then, may be because my son was very popular and loved by the people was why it became very prominent as people were pained.”
A resident of Badagry-Seme corridor, Abraham Oke, revealed that he had seen not less than 10 injured individuals, aside from about five other persons dying from stray bullets or getting knocked down.
He noted that smuggling is very complicated and involves a lot of networking, observing that many of the chases owe to a breach in agreement or the need to ‘show’ the government that they are working.
Oke insisted that if the Nigerian Customs Service were to be relied on in its discharge of duties, it should engage in intelligence-led operations, “but every checkpoint wants to operate in isolation and to fight for their ‘pockets’.”
He also suggested that the service should strengthen its internal operations and collaboration mechanism that will ensure effective and efficient service delivery as an agency.
He also argued that prioritising the welfare of officers could make them to be more humane in carrying out their enforcement.
He stated that government and the Nigerian Customs Service should know that lives are worth more than any revenue; therefore, priorities of the agency should be rightly adjusted and adequately implemented.
He also called for awareness and sensitisation of officers and the surrounding environment.
“It will interest you to know that more than 70 per cent of smuggling activities in the border area are powered and sponsored by non-residents or natives. Smuggling is expensive and requires a wide network,” Oke stated.
Stakeholders are of the opininon that the fight against smuggling is a legitimate responsibility of the state, but enforcement cannot be measured only by the goods seized or smugglers apprehended.
When customs officers chase suspected smugglers through communities, drive recklessly or discharge firearms and residents are injured or killed, the human cost becomes part of the story.
For families caught in such incidents, the distinction between an anti-smuggling operation and a preventable tragedy may offer little comfort.
It was, therefore, not surprising when there was tension in Ajara area of Badagry, Lagos State mid-July 2026, when a suspected rice smuggler and customs officers drove recklessly into the community.
For many residents who witnessed the incident, it was not a palatable experience, as they pondered over the negative consequences of the action, especially as children were moving across the roads.
It was gathered that the youths prevented the officers from going away with the bags of rice seized from the man who rode in an SUV because community leaders and stakeholders had earlier warned and protested that chasing smugglers into their community often endanger residents.
In the video of the altercation between the Customs officers and the youths, gunshots were heard. It was, however, gladdening that the confrontation between the two did not degenerate into death or anyone getting injured.
However, while the Nigeria Customs Service has a constitutional responsibility to curb the illegal movement of goods across the country’s porous borders, concerns are mounting over enforcement operations that have reportedly left residents caught in the crossfire of high-speed pursuits and exchanges of gunfire with suspected smugglers.
This is because these are communities where farmers, traders, schoolchildren and commuters share the same roads used by smugglers.
They, however, argued that the manner customs and some other security agencies carryout their enforcement, leave a thin line between legitimate law enforcement and avoidable danger.
Dovinon Whenayon Zachariah, a resident of Badagry commenting on the recent incident, said: “This unprofessionalism of the Nigeria Customs in Badagry federation has ended the life of many youths. I remembered some years ago, when they chased a bike carrying bags of rice down to the Oglogbo Community Sea Beach, their reckless shooting and unprofessionalism, led to a young boy of 12 years getting hit by a stray bullet on his back while playing football. Till date, nothing has been done. It is high time our traditional rulers stand against this, because the youths have been advocating putting an end to this unprofessionalism for quite long.”
Similarly, another resident,Sesede Toviho, described the incident as so absurd and unacceptable.
“I am sure Badagry Local Council and Badagry West LCDA have had several engagements with them concerning this, but it looks like it’s not stopping and this is dangerous to us the populace. It’s until all others and community people wake up and take the bull by the horn before these people know we’re not joking. I know for sure that if it’s just to talk without taking actions this will continue to happen and it could affect anybody.
“One happened as I was going to work just opposite Badagry Grammar School (BGS), you needed to see the way they were chasing this bike man with two bags of rice o, and a parent was taking her children to Wesley School and they almost hit them.
“The Customs later hit the bike man on the covet and then he stood up and ran across the road without watching. Now, let’s assume a car or even a bike was coming at that time and it hit the man, or what if the man had hit his head on the covet when they fell him down, what if they had hit the bike man carrying those pupils and their mum? This has to stop.”
From the comments on the facebook page, though the latest incident, there was no casualty, earlier incidents have resulted in injuries and death of victims. But such incidents are not limited only to Badagry.
Also commenting, Sewanu Michael felt that probably because there is no single official consolidated figure published about those shot and who died from stray bullets from Customs officers make stakeholders not to pay much attention to the issue.
He stated that several documented incidents have been reported in the media over the last six to seven years. He said that in 2019, it was reported that three students were shot at an illegal checkpoint in Inogi Community, Badagry West LCDA, with two of them becoming amputees.
He added that around 2016 and 2017, a woman, Mrs Patience Oni, was allegedly killed by stray bullets during a customs raid near Badagry Roundabout.
He also said that in 2016, two boys, ages 10 and 12, were hit by stray bullets during a clash over petrol smuggling in Sokenu Compound, Seme. He, however, disclosed that they were treated at the customs clinic and survived.
On whether intelligence-led operations could reduce the need for dangerous vehicle chases, Michael stated that intelligence-led operations shift the focus from reactive road chases to proactive disruption.
According to him, the Customs can deploy intelligence led operation by targeting the network, not just the goods. “They should use surveillance, informants, and data analysis to identify warehouses, financiers, and smuggling routes before goods move.”
He also suggested intercepting smuggled goods at storage points some of which are very popular and hideouts instead of chasing moving vehicles on public roads.
He further said that deployment of technology will help, with the agency deploying scanners, drones and maritime monitoring at waterside exit points in Badagry to track boats without high-speed pursuit.
He added that inter-agency collaboration with joint patrols among security agencies as well as better intel sharing, which will reduce surprise confrontations.
He is also of the opinion that community engagement and partnership is critical which he thinks will help to reduce mob resistance by working with local leaders.
“Some clashes occur when ‘unscrupulous elements’ try to set seized items ablaze. This reduces high-speed chases that endanger officers, smugglers, and civilians.”
On how policymakers should balance revenue protection against the duty to protect citizens’ lives, Sewanu stated that the balance should be revenue without casualties, which is human lives first.
He added that Standard Operating Procedures must mandate that firearms are a last resort, especially in populated areas.
He also stated that border communities like Seme generates more than 10 billion yearly, investing part of that revenue in border livelihood programmes will reduce reliance on smuggling.
According to him, it is important that accountability is prioritise through investigating and prosecuting excessive force cases. This would help to build public trust.
He also said efforts should be geared towards improving legal trade facilitation through faster, cheaper, and clearer import processes, which would reduce the incentive to smuggle, protect revenue without raids.
Similarly, President, Badagry Division Youths Employment Initiative, Mukaila Oluwafemi, said the peole are not asking that customs officers should abandon the duties empowered by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“But we plead that once a vehicle has left the main road and entered any community in Badagry West or has crossed Gbaji Bridge into Badagry Town or Ajara Town, the chase should stop there. Lives of Nigerians are more important than one bag of rice. We have seen cases where people are killed over rice, and that same rice will still be distributed and eaten across the country, including the East and the North.
“If the issue is with those using containers, please focus your operation on that. But chasing a man carrying one bag or two bags of rice into our communities is putting innocent lives at risk.
To be honest, I have not seen this kind of customs operation in any other country I have traveled to.
Let us be more professional about this job. The safety of citizens is the primary responsibility of every responsible government and all security agencies.
“We beg you in the name of God. If there is an exchange of gunfire inside our communities, innocent people will be victims: pregnant women, school children, and residents who have nothing to do with it.
Let your men be more active at the border and at official checkpoints approved by the Federal Government. Do not bring the chase into our communities.”
Responding to the different queries, the Spokesperson of the Nigeria Customs Service, Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada, stated that the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) operates strictly within its constitutional mandate to protect the national economy, public health and national security from illicit trade.
He noted that the decision to pursue fleeing suspects is grounded in duty, as unmonitored contraband often includes arms, ammunition, and dangerous goods that pose broader threats to society.
“However, the Service does not and will never justify operations that deliberately put innocent lives at risk. The discharge of firearms in populated areas is strongly discouraged and restricted.
“In almost every recorded instance where engagement occurs within communities, officers are subjected to sudden, violent ambushes or hostile crossfire initiated by organised criminal syndicates or paid mobs attempting to forcibly retrieve seized goods. While officers possess a right to self-defense our operational directive prioritises tactical intelligence and interception at border lines over high-speed pursuits in residential areas.”
A Professor of Criminology and Security studies at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ebonyi State, Smart Otu, noted that the the pattern of customs officers or security agencies chasing smugglers and criminals into communities is outdated, because every serious organisation should be intelligence driven.
“If you do intelligence policing and anti-smuggling, you don’t even allow them to get to a point where you begin to chase them into the communities. “
This is because of its implications, stray bullets could hit innocent people, which make the Customs as an organisation inefficient.
It is a system that should not be tolerated at this 21st century. However, we are in a system where there is no accountability so they still result to this kind of crude method but I think it is not acceptable in this era. What we need to do is to do more of intelligence policing, you can even use the local, and get these people before they even get to the point of chasing them.
“In serious environment, even before the smugglers leave their locations, they have information, and so they intercept them at the point of entry. It should be all about intelligence driven process. If you are doing an intelligence driven anti-smuggling, or generally anti policing you must have a right source of information where as the people are leaving their locations. It is like what happens in most cases under drug trafficking, especially in most advanced countries they have this intelligence, once you have loaded yourself with the drugs, information gets to them all they need to is to protect the source of information, so that the informant will not be exposed because these smugglers are generally very ruthless if they are able to get the source of the leak. Now, the world has gone technological in terms of fighting crimes. If they mount the necessary surveillance, again at the right place they will be able to detect these smugglers before they get to the point of chasing them with their foot or with their bike or with their vehicle.”
Otu said that the Customs and its officers have continued to use crude methods that endanger residents in its operations to arrest smugglers because officers and their bosses have not be held accountable in cases where people died or get injured from such operations.
He noted that in a sane clime, the system holds every officer accountable for his or her action which is not the case in Nigeria.
“The system should hold you accountable so that you don’t mess up in the cause of carrying out your duty. There are rules and regulations or what we call generally rule of engagement even in the use of force and in carrying out your legitimate job. There are rules guiding, and so when they chase someone for instance and then it ends in a fatal shooting, injury or murder, who is held accountable? How many times do we hear how the matter ended? So the system continues like a circle, in what we may call social contagious theory. It happens and it happens in a cyclical form and people get away with it because if somebody is held accountable of course who should be held accountable, the boss who sent his boys to the field and the boys, all of them, should be held accountable.
Otu maintained that way forward is basically implementing reforms that allow technologically driven intelligence operations. He nonetheless added that there is no better reform than that of human intelligence which remains the best, but it must be complimented with technology for appropriate surveillance.
He said that there is need to strengthen the institutions that oversight the Nigeria Customs Service for them to be active in their oversight.
On the rules of engagement governing pursuing smugglers with firearms, Maiwada said the Service enforces strict Rules of Engagement (RoE), stating firearms are strictly weapons of last resort, permissible only under clear, demonstrable threats of death or severe bodily harm to officers.
“The use of live ammunition to stop a moving vehicle or in densely populated spaces is prohibited unless officers face incoming direct lethal force.
“Directives mandate that if a pursuit enters a crowded market or densely populated residential zone where collateral risk escalates, officers must disengage immediately, rely on intelligence tracking, and intercept the cargo at a safer location.”
He maintained that every loss of life or injury involving a citizen is a tragic event that the Service deeply regrets.
“Over the past three years, incidents involving civilian casualties during anti-smuggling encounters have dropped significantly due to refined operational protocols.
“The Service maintains zero tolerance for professional misconduct, recklessness, or excessive force.
Officers involved in unsanctioned weapon discharges face internal Orderly Room trials. Depending on findings, sanctions range from dismissal from service to immediate prosecution in civil courts.”
When an operational incident leads to the injury or death of an innocent resident, Maiwada stated that the NCS takes full organisational responsibility to ensure transparent investigation and justice.
“In line with parliamentary recommendations and executive directives, the Service works through established legal frameworks and state governments to ensure affected families receive appropriate financial compensation, burial support, and coverage of medical expenses.
“Beyond monetary support, senior leadership directly engages affected families and community elders to foster healing, restore trust, and prevent recurring friction.”
To ensure anti-smuggling operations do not endanger law-abiding citizens, Maiwada said that the NCS under current leadership has implemented five concrete operational shifts.
“Non-Lethal Interception Tools: Deployment of spike strips, modern barrier tech, and tracking devices to immobilize fleeing vehicles without firing shots.
“Technology-Driven Surveillance: Expanding geospatial surveillance, body-worn cameras, and automated border monitoring systems to track suspects remotely rather than engaging in high-speed physical chases through towns.
“Border Community Advisory Framework: Strengthening institutional dialogue with traditional rulers, youth leaders, and civil society in border towns to build mutual trust and eliminate hostiles aiding smugglers.
“Rules of Engagement Retraining: Mandatory, continuous retraining programs on emotional intelligence, conflict de-escalation, and human rights compliance for all field units.
“Joint Taskforce Coordination: Streamlining joint operations with relevant sister security agencies to handle cordon-and-search operations safely within populated settlements.”
