Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), has refuted allegations that its operatives attacked a car along Ningi-Kano road which was said to have led to the death of a Journalist and four others travelling in the vehicle.
The refutal is contained in a press release signed by the Public Relations Officer, Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘D’ Bauchi of the Service, Suleiman Isah, copies of which were made available to newsmen in Bauchi on Wednesday, stating that the allegations were made up by a friend of the deceased Journalist in his tweeter handle.
According to him, “the attention of the Nigerian Customs Service was drawn to the misleading tweets by @KNingi on his tweeter handle purporting that “Officers of the @CustomsNG yesterday (Saturday) along Ningi-Kano road attack a driver carrying bags of rice”.
He further stated that the tweeter user added that, “incidentally this resulted to the death of about 5 passengers including my friend reporter of @daily_trust Bashir Musa Liman.”
Suleiman Isah, who is an Assistant Superintendent of Customs II, stated that the tweet was false, mischievous and aimed at “misleading the public that the operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service have a hand in the accident that caused loss of lives”.
The statement further contained that, “This story is mischievous, misleading and false in its entirety. As responsible operatives of Government, our hearts and prayers go to the families of the deceased. We pray the Almighty Allah to grant the deceased Aljannatul-Firdausi.”
He stated also that “it is, however, important to keep the record of the unfortunate accident straight by stating that there was no operative of the Nigeria Customs Service on that road in question on that fateful day”.
“Immediately after reading the misleading tweet, we began to find out what actually happened; eyewitnesses, including a brother of one of the deceased, has clearly shown that the operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service were never associated with the accident since there was none on that road”, he explained.
Suleiman Isah added that “Every narration revolved around over-speeding and attempt to overtake which led to the fatal accident. We also gathered that One (1) of the vehicles involved in the accident was carrying some bags of rice and some people thought it could have been operatives of the NCS that caused the accident,”.
The Customs PRO advised that any person interested in further verification of his statement is free to contact any appropriate authority like the Nigeria Police Force “that might have been on the road when this unfortunate accident happened.”
Isah noted that: “As humans, we share in the pain of losing loved ones. Let me use this opportunity to call on @KNingi.1d and indeed other social media users to be extra careful and verify their stories before posting or tweets on social media especially when it concerns such serious issue like human life”.
The PRO concluded that “Let me, once again, extend the condolences of the Service to the families of the deceased and pray for road safety for every traveller.”
It will be recalled that the late Journalist, a Freelance Reporter with Daily Trust Newspapers in Jos, Bashir Musa Liman died in a ghastly motor accident along with four others while travelling on Ningi-Kano Road last Saturday.
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