The recent raid of Akala Shopping Complex and entire Bodija Market with carting away of thousands bag of rice, valuable goods and substantial amount of money by Custom has been described as an act of irresponsibility and double standard.
You will recall that Customs raided the popular Bodija international market in Ibadan, the Oyo State Capital in the early hour of thursday.
The unexpected raid triggered traders and residents annoyance which resulted to mass protest within the State.
A respondent who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said that Nigerian customs of Federal Operation Unit (FOU) carried out an acrimonious and sentimental operation.
He challenged the heads of custom officers in Oyo State and at Zonal level for their failure to claim no knowledge and innocence of the alleged dastardly acts, stressing that there were skeletons in their cupboards which would be fished out soonest.
He further explained that no Nigerian Customs team had never in history burgled shops nor markets in the northern part of Nigeria, but they had the effrontery and boldness to raid shops in southern part of the country, especially Ibadan under the pretence of looking for foreign rice.
A popular trader who didn’t want his identity revealed said, “The current question in the leaps of traders as regard the activities of the Custom is where were the custom officers before the foreign rice got into the traders shops?”
He said, “the custom officers had hidden agenda to have burgled the rice which had scaled through many borders before getting to their shops.
“Nigerian customs are either corrupt or unprofessional on the discharge of their duties, emphasizing that where were they before the foreign rice got to shops of the respective traders.
“The customs raid is both sentimental and wicked which cannot be easily forgotten.
“The money invested on business is not theirs, but loans that were obtained from different sources”.
Affected traders called on Governor Seyi Makinde and other concerned stakeholders in Oyo State and beyond to see to the incident which had triggered loss and debt.
