The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has revealed that its operatives were forced to offer bags of seized rice to bandits to save their lives during an encounter in Dutsin-Ma Local Government Area of Katsina State.
The shocking disclosure was made by Controller Aliyu Mohamed, the National Coordinator of Border Drill Sector Four, Northwest, during a press briefing in Katsina.
Mohamed narrated that the operatives were on a routine operation when they encountered armed bandits in the area.
To avoid being attacked, the officers offered seven bags of seized rice to the criminals.
“We have a lot of challenges; the people we are working for are not supporting us. We are not working for only Customs; we are working for the nation,” Mohamed told journalists.
“I sacrificed my life to go to Dutsin-Ma and enter the bush where the bandits are. If I tell you about our last encounter with them, to the extent that they are a little bit friendly with us — we seized 37 bags of rice. They said, ‘okay, if we are to go, they have to take seven bags.’ We gave them seven bags to save our lives. So you see the risk I took,” he added.
The controller lamented the increasing dangers faced by security operatives in border regions, emphasising that inadequate support and poor coordination from authorities have made their work more difficult and life-threatening.
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