An officer of the Nigeria Customs Service, Ogun I Command, Taiwo Odeyemi, has been declared missing after a team of officers and smugglers engaged in a gun battle.

It was learnt that the team on Thursday intercepted some vehicles loaded with bags of foreign parboiled rice while on routine patrol along Olorunlere village, near Alapoti, Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area of the state.

The smugglers whose goods were intercepted reportedly opened fire on the Customs officers who fired back.

The Public Relations Officer of the Customs Ogun I Command, Hammed Oloyede, in a statement on Friday explained that the customs officers were overpowered, withdrew and called for reinforcement.

He added that the smugglers had already vandalised one of the official vehicles while Odeyemi was found missing in the process.

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The statement read in parts, “On Thursday, December 3, 2020 at 12:10pm, a team of officers and men of Nigeria Customs Service, Ogun I Command while on routine mobile patrol along Olorunlere 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 to serious exchange of fire between the two sides.

“It was later discovered that an official driver, CA I (T) Taiwo J Odeyemi, was missing and has not been found as at the time of writing this report.”