A family of five, including three school children, on Thursday, escaped gunshot by the whisker as officers of Nigeria Customs Service went on the rampage early in the morning in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

The school children were being conveyed to school by their mother simply identified as Mrs Obaji, when the officers came from behind shooting sporadically around Mile II in the city.

The car which also has a maid in it, fell inside the drainage when it was hit through the front bumper by a bullet fired by the officers.

Alhaji Obaji, the head of the family, while narrating his family’s ordeal said these officers showed no empathy as they left the family helpless.

He said, “She was taking the children to school so she can return back to her shop. On getting to Mile II, these officers chashing with smugglers started shooting sporadically very early in the morning while school children were on their ways to school.

“There was obviously no smuggler on site, but these officers continued shooting. while everybody was running to safety, the car fell inside a drainage with the children in there, the whole family was left traumatised.

“It took the intervention of the neighbourhood before the vehicle was removed from the drainage without these officers showing empathy or sympathy.

“I didn’t know a bullet was lodged inside the car, I only discovered water draining under the car. Only for the auto technicians to come and discovered that there was bullet lodged in the engine through the radiator. The front bumper and the radiator were damaged while the family was left traumatised.”

Alhaji Obaji called on the governor of the State, Dapo Abiodun, and the Controller General of Customs to caution officers, saying nowhere is safe again with rhe officers on rampage.

“I am saying this to call the attention of the Controller General of Customs and the Govenror of Ogun State, are these people sent to kill everybody? Is it until they cause more damages before they are called to order or they are made to account for their atrocities?

“Nobody is safe again in the hands of these officers and no place is safe for anybody with these blood thirty officers,” he said.

Reacting, the PRO of the Ogun State Comamnd of the service, Hammed Oloyede, said such incidents should be reported to the command, adding that necessary actions would be taken.

He said, “If not you’re telling me, nobody reported any incident to us. When incident like this happen, the best thing is to report to the office, we investigate the matter and we know how to go about it. There’s no way such a thing will happen and the service will overlook it.

“If such allegation is correct, why not approach the office and lay the complaint about such incident. That’s what I expect them to do in the first place. When an incident occur, the best thing to do it to approach the office and we will take action immediately, but my happiness is that nothing happened to the family,” he added. (Daily Independent)

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