Mob Avenges Smuggler’s Death, Kills Customs Officer

Apparently frustrated by the command’s hard stance on
smuggling, a mob yesterday killed a Customs officer on his
way to his office at the Seme border post, by a mob that also
burnt his car. The mob’s action, according to sources, was in
revenge of the alleged shooting of a smuggler by another
officer at the border post, earlier in the day.
The deceased officer was said to have been accosted by the
mob shortly after the shooting of the smuggler in front of
Operation Two Area at the border.
The smuggler who was killed had attempted to bring bags of
rice into the country from Benin Republic.
In a confirmatory statement by the Seme Customs Command’s
Public Relations Officer, Ernest Olottah, the dead Customs
officer was brought out of his car and beaten to death while
his car was set ablaze.The suspected smuggler identified
simply as Saturday, was said to have been shot during an
argument between him and another Customs officer.
Saturday, is an indigene of one of the communities at the
border area. He is said to be recovering at an undisclosed
hospital.
“The deceased Customs officer while in his uniform unarmed
and driving to the command’s headquarters for a routine
meeting was accosted by a mob who forced him out of his
vehicle. Buoyed by an identified chief of the community, the
officer was murdered in cold blood and his vehicle set ablaze,”
the statement said in part.