Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has been accused of being responsible for the death of some buyers of bags of rice at the weekend.
The service has also been asked to pay compensation to families of deceased persons, who had responded to an invitation by Customs to buy rice, but were trampled to death by crowd at the sales.
Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA), who made the allegation and the call, also described as fallacious, attempt by customs to exonerate itself of any responsibility for the fatalities.
In a statement, HURIWA, through the National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, stated that it was unbecoming of public office holders in contemporary times to decline responsibility for their apparent dereliction of duties or failure to carry out their mandates in line with best global practices.
He said: “We expect that the Nigeria Customs Service should apologise for the shoddy process that characterised their public sales of rice to Lagos’ poor residents. There is no doubt in anybody’s mind that were the customs efficient in putting the mechanisms in place for this exercise, these fatalities are totally avoidable.
“What the NCS should do now is to take responsibility, pay compensation to the families of those who died responding to NCS’s invitation to buy rice at giveaway prices. Anything outside of payments of N50 million compensation to each of the families of the seven persons that died should mean that a litigation be filed in the court of law to compel the Nigeria Customs Service to be criminally liable for their action or inactions.”
NCS had described as unfortunate the stampede at its office in Yaba, Lagos, during the sale of 25kg bags of rice to Lagos residents that led to the death of some seven persons.
HURIWA learnt that people were trampled to death as a mass of people thronged the venue of the sale of the bags of confiscated rice at the Yaba office of the service on Friday amid the harsh economic conditions in the country.
Media reports indicated that a member of the All Progressives Congress, Comfort Adebanjo, and six others lost their lives in the bid to purchase the rice, which sold for N10,000 at the Yaba Customs’ office.
