Family Raises Alarm Over Whereabouts Of Missing Customs Officer

Daily Post reports that the family of Jacob Taiwo Odeyemi, an officer of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has cried out over the whereabouts of their kinsman.

It was gathered that Odeyemi was last seen at the Idiroko Command by his family in 2020, since then, his whereabouts have been unknown.

The family of the missing officer has now appealed to the federal government and the NCS to help find their kinsman.

The head of the family, who is also the elder brother of the missing officer, Mr Peter Odeyemi while speaking with DAILY POST on Saturday, urged the federal government and NCS to ensure that Taiwo is found alive.

He said all efforts made by the family to get the attention of the Customs Service to know the whereabouts of the missing officer have proven abortive.

He said, “What we require of the Federal Government of Nigeria is to help us contact the Nigeria Customs in Idi Iroko and the team that Taiwo Odeyemi last worked with on the day of the incident to tell us his family of Taiwo’s whereabouts because we have not been informed by them officially.

“Then look into the welfare of his family because his salary has been stopped after two months of the incident. To Nigerian Customs, we want them to stop manipulating the security system and covering up the matter. We want to cooperate with the Nigeria Police to do their job by providing them with every request they ask from us.

“We also made our investigation as a concerned family in the community of the incident, we were informed that the team leader and his team on that day 03/12/2020, knew everything about Taiwo but to our surprise, the PRO to Nigeria customs and the Controller at the time did not support the Police with the necessary information and evidence to do their job. Instead, I was told by Taiwo’s wife that the public relations officer (PRO) was adding to her grief and pain by verbally harassing her. All we need from both the Nigerian Government and Nigeria Customs is to help us discover what happened to Taiwo Odeyemi”.

The wife of the missing customs officer, Yetunde Iyabo Odeyemi, who also spoke with DAILY POST, appealed to concerned authorities to help locate her husband.

Following the family’s appeal, the Public Relations Officer of Ogun I Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, Hammed Bukoye Oloyede while reacting, claimed some customs officers were attacked by some smugglers on the day the missing officer was last seen and the whereabouts of Odeyemi has not been known since then.

He added that he issued a statement on the incident in 2020.

“This is a press release issued after the unfortunate incident that led to the loss of CA I (T) Odeyemi Taiwo. His whereabouts is yet to be known till this moment”.

The release issued by Oloyede and sent to DAILY POST Saturday evening read, “On Thursday, 3rd of December, 2020 at about 12:10 hours, a team of Officers and Men of Nigeria Customs Service, Ogun I Command while on routine mobile patrol along Olorunleke village, near Alapoti, Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State intercepted some vehicles loaded with bags of foreign parboiled rice.

“The suspected smugglers, sensing their loss on sighting the patrol team attempted to evade arrest and eventually started shooting sporadically at the Officers. This resulted in a serious exchange of fire between the two sides. Consequently, the patrol team called for reinforcement. However, before the intervention from other units, they were overwhelmed due to the numeric strength of the smugglers/hoodlums. In the ensuing commotion, the team tactically withdrew to enable the arrival of the reinforcement teams.

“On the arrival of the military personnel and other units of Customs, including the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) as requested by the CAC, the hoodlums had already vandalised one of the official vehicles attached to the team. It was later discovered that an official driver, CA I (T) Taiwo J Odeyemi was missing and has not been found as of the time of writing this report. In light of the above, the investigation is ongoing and effort is being made along with other security agencies and other critical stakeholders to locate the whereabouts of the missing officer and rescue him alive. Finally, the CAC has vowed to ensure that those behind this attack face the full wrath of the law and justice”.