Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta
Governor Dapo Abiodun has declared that the state government would investigate the circumstances leading to the killing of three students of Ojumo Community High School, Ihunbo in Ipokia Local Government Area.
Abiodun said the investigation would help identify measures to be put in place to prevent a recurrence and bring the perpetrators to justice.
The Governor who made this known on Tuesday through his Chief Press Secretary, Kunle Somorin, added that he received with shock, the incident which resulted in the death of the three students with others sustaining various degrees of injuries.
The death of the three students was allegedly caused by a vehicle driven by an official of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) who were engaged in a deadly chase of fleeing suspected smugglers.
Abiodun noted that it was painful that young children with promising futures lost their lives in such a manner, praying that the Almighty God would grant the families the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
He urged the people of Ihunbo and its environs to be calm and patient, advising Officers of the Nigeria Customs Service to always apply caution during operation
Earlier, the youths from eight of the border communities in Ipokia Local Government Area of the State embarked on a walk around security formations in the area, appealing on them to put a halt to the alleged reckless killing of their people under the guise of hunting down smugglers and other criminals.
The youths under the aegis of Ipokia Local Government Youths Policy Forum(ILGYPF) were drawn from Idiroko, Ago – Sasa, Ijofin, Ilase, Ifoyintedo, Ajegunle, Aseko, Ihunbo – all in Ipokia Local Government Area of the State, yesterday took the peace walk to the Nigeria Immigration Service(NIS), Nigeria Customs Service(NCS) and Nigeria Police Force Divisional Headquarters in Idiroko preaching peaceful relationship between them and the security agencies.
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The youths were received by the Police and NIS with exception of the NCS, Idiroko Command where they were told that the officer who should attend to them, was not around.
The Acting Coordinator of the Forum, Deji Imoleayo, who addressed reporters, said they and their parents have continued to accommodate and show love to all federal security formations in their domains – the Police, NIS, NCS among others, demanding that the affected government agencies henceforth accord respect to their lives and safety
Imoleayo alleged that no fewer than 100 of their people have been cut down extra – judicially through indiscriminate firing of guns in residential areas by the security agents, lamenting that the victims have largely been the innocent ones and not smugglers or other criminals.
He said the youths are no opposed to the federal government’s war against smuggling and other border crimes in the communities but added that the security agents should go about executing the war without exposing the lives of their innocent brothers, sisters, parents and kids to routine grave danger.
He noted that it is reckless and unprofessional for security agents to open fire indiscriminately on fleeing criminals who are making their escape bids in densely populated areas.
Deji said: “If we want to take numbers of killings, we want to get up to hundreds of it. The problem that we are having is most of these killings are not on the offenders, they are on innocent people.
“We are passing a message that even though we are not stopping you(security agencies)from doing your job, do it under the constitutional provision, because the constitution does not permit them to be shooting sporadically where people resides.
“We elected to use the independence celebration to walk for peace and we are passing a message of love to the security parastatal and agencies situated in our local government and in demand, we want them to love us back.
“We don’t want anymore of all these injudicious killings and all these things that are happening in our Local Government being a border area must stop.
“People devised all means because of the closeness to Benin Republic to do some illegal businesses, but that does not mean it is everybody in the Local Government that engage in illegal businesses. So, we as youths are trying to sensitize those that are doing it. We are telling them that the illegal business is not passable to the next generation because it is not permitted by the law.
“We are still going to conduct sensitization tour to all the wards, where the smuggle kingpin are, because it is our local government and we know them.”
The Divisional Police Officer for Idiroko Divisional Police Headquarters, Sunday Opebiyi, who addressed the youths, hailed their maturity and assured of the Police readiness to partner with them to build lasting peace in the areas.
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