The Chairman of Ibarapa North local government, Hon Lawal Lateef Akorede has spoken on the incident that happened in Igangan on Friday night saying people were misinformed and not attacked by herdsmen.
Recall that it was earlier reported that gunmen who were later discovered to be Customs officers stormed the town.
The council boss in a statement on Saturday said the Customs officers were trying to seize goods from suspected smugglers but couldn’t inform the police of their presence because they were on illegal duty.
He added that they were not with their official vehicles.
Akorede also urged residents of Ibarapa North local government to continue remaining law abiding citizens and peace lover.
He said: “Concerning yesterday’s issue, we were misinformed, we were not attacked, they are custom officers trying to seize some goods.
“When they entered Igangan, around Ajimati fueling station, Some indigenes stopped and queried them. The indigenes insisted they don’t want to see any uniform men.
“The people suspected that they are not real customs because they were not in their official vehicles. They wore their uniforms but the people insisted that they cannot let them in. This led to arguments which provoked shootings and an innocent soul was killed. This forced them to turn back and force their way out of the community and headed to Tapa.
“Meanwhile, the people of Tapa and Ayete have been informed wrongly that they are fulanis even after some smugglers have identified them to be truly customs. On getting to Tapa, residence said they were shouting out very loudly that they are customs and not fulani.
“They were stopped in Tapa and were later granted safe passage but on getting to ayete, they were shooting sporadically in the air which gave the people another wrong signal. When they got to the roadblocks in Ayete, one of the custom officer was said to have been shot from someone hiding nearby, this prompt the other officers to return the shooting to the direction the shot came from and someone was killed in the process. After that, they forced their way out of Ayete.
“They got to Igboora and fire was exchanged again causing another set of killings.
“Firstly, the wrong information that came from Igangan and the custom officers that came to do unofficial duty were the cause of yesterday’s mayhem.
And in our investigation, we found out that the officers couldn’t inform the police of their presence because they were on an illegal duty. Also they were not with their official vehicles. The only two hilux vehicles were that of the operation burst and the police who were trying to lead them out of the community after they were invited by the customs when the whole issue started.”
