Two customs officers die in car crash while chasing rice smugglers

The Nigerian Customs Service in Akwa Ibom state have been thrown into morning after two of their colleagues attached to the Oron Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, reportedly died in an auto crash on Sunday while pursuing a bus suspected to be carrying smuggled rice. Two other officers including the driver of the truck being chased sustained injuries. An eyewitness said the truck was later found to be without any bag of rice. According to the eyewitness, the Hilux vehicle conveying the customs officer, marked ‘Strike Force Team,’ hit the Sienna bus, with number plate, APP 784 FM, and somersaulted several times.

ShThe Nigerian Customs Service in Akwa Ibom state have been thrown into morning after two of their colleagues attached to the Oron Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, reportedly died in an auto crash on Sunday while pursuing a bus suspected to be carrying smuggled rice. Two other officers including the driver of the truck being chased sustained injuries. An eyewitness said the truck was later found to be without any bag of rice. According to the eyewitness, the Hilux vehicle conveying the customs officer, marked ‘Strike Force Team,’ hit the Sienna bus, with number plate, APP 784 FM, and somersaulted several times.

“When I inspected the Sienna bus, no single grain of rice was in it. The bus was returning from a church in Oron,” the eyewitness added. Nigeria has restricted the importation of foreign rice and has even shut it’s border to stem smuggling of the commodity.