By Michael Adesanya/Abeokuta
Pained by the incessant killings of Ogun State students during operations conducted by officers of the Nigeria Customs, the national leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the National Association of Ogun State Students (NAOSS) have called for the immediate removal of the Ogun State Controller of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Command 1, Michael Agbara.
In a statement jointly signed by the National Vice President of NANS, Comrade Ojo Raymond and the National President of NAOSS, Comrade Gbemileke Ogunronmbi, the two groups in Abeokuta on Monday gave a seven-day ultimatum to the Comptroller General of the NSC, Hameed Ali to remove the Ogun Controller or face the full wrath of the entire students of the country.
The students also threatened to defy the lockdown order of both the Federal and the Ogun State governments and mobilise across the nation to occupy the NSC Command in Ogun State 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”.
The students lamented the killings of students and other residents of various Ogun State border communities in the name of fighting smugglers.
NANS and NAOSS described the State Command of the NSC as destroyers of lives and property.
“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 reckless 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 of our people.”
The students also condemned what they said is the silence of Senator Tolu Odebiyi, the Senator representing Ogun west Senatorial district on 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?”