Customs Officers Give Preferential Treatment To Katsina Traders, Ibadan Traders Lament, Over NCS Raid

After the failure and reluctance of Officers of Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to return the bags of rice and other valuable goods allegedly carted away, after they burgled Ibadan Traders’ shops recently, Oyo Residents have advised the Senate President and other distinguished senators at the National Assembly to stop the customs’ officers from giving preferential treatment to only Katsina traders who had their goods returned after they were seized.

The warning was coming from Oyo residents following the senators instructions to the men of NCS to return all the goods seized from the traders in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State.

Zacchaeus Taiwo, an Ibadan Man who was granted an interview, lamented that Katsina traders had their goods returned after they had been allegedly carted away by men of NCS, so there is no need for NCS in Ibadan to continue withholding the goods seized in Ibadan after the senators’ intervention had called for immediate returning of goods to their owners.


Taiwo demanded that Officers of NCS should not give preferential treatment to only Katsina traders, adding that the continual seizure of Ibadan traders’ goods at their disposal is tantamount to injustice and unfairness.


Adewale Qassim, a different Ibadan man, also said that the action taken by the customs officers to return the goods belonging to Katsina traders validates the fact that they only cared about the traders in the Northern state than the ones in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Qassim emphasised that the officer who led the Katsina’s shops’ raid had been dismissed, while a similar decision is yet to be taken against the ones who led a similar raid on Ibadan markets.

He said that his thought was also in line with what others are saying that “men of NCS only returned the Katsina Traders’ goods because they are from President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state”.


An anonymous respondent also disclosed that men of NCS who executed the cruel and illegal act should be brought before the court of law.

Another anonymous respondent maintained that an action taken by them could make people seek self-help and self-defence because the government is failing to do the needful.

However, he urged the Senate President and distinguished senators to call the customs’ officers to order and avoid carrying out an act, which is an aberration to the act that established and sustains the agency.