Family of deceased traveller petitions customs over extra-judicial killing

The family of a deceased traveller, who was a victim of alleged extra-judicial killing by officials of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), has petitioned the Comptroller General of the service, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd), calling for a comprehensive investigation of circumstances surrounding the death of their kinsman.

The family, through their counsel, Barr. Akib Idris, in the petition said their son, Salisu Badamasi, was alleged to have been killed by the men of Ogun State command of Nigerian Customs Service at Ogere, on the 15th of January this year.

According to the petition dated 18th March and made available to The Guardian, the Customs men had unjustifiably killed their son after collecting N400,000 from him over goods they had earlier confiscated, adding that they molested traders coming from Lagos to Jos.
It said besides Salisu Badamasi, his co-traveller Adamu Sani was also shot and injured.

The petitioners said the conduct of the Customs men was a flagrant violation of the fundamental rights of the two persons and demanded “punishment of those officers that had participated in the act and restrain them from further harassing, arresting and forceful extorting of money, to avoid a re-occurrence of extra-judicial killings.”

The families also demanded payment of “N500m as compensation to the families of Salisu Badamasi and Adamu Sani, whose innocent blood is crying for justice.”

The petitioners also demanded that the Comptroller – General direct the refund of N400,000 earlier extorted by men of the Customs service and “to publish an unreserved public apology in at least two national dailies.”