The Nigerian Customs Service and the Nigeria Union of Teachers have continued to disagree on the recent incident at the United Secondary School, Ijokodo in Ibadan, Oyo State, in which a teacher was allegedly manhandled by some armed customs men for disciplining the son of a customs officer.
The teachers, through their union, the Nigeria Union of Teachers, are angry that one of their own, Mr. Gbenga Ogunleye, was beaten up by ten armed customs men, for disciplining a student, Alison Chukwuemeka.
The state secretary of the NUT, Mr. Siyan Olojede, said in a statement in Ibadan yesterday that they would employ all legal means to redress the brutal attack on its member by the customs men.
But in a swift reaction, the Nigeria Customs Service has debunked the claim t by the teachers that its men ever manhandled the said teacher.
The command claimed yesterday that although the said student, who is the son of a customs officer, was badly beaten and left with lacerations all over the body, the service did not go to the school to cause any trouble as alleged by the teachers.
In a statement in Abuja yesterday, the command said that a quarrel only broke out between the parents of the student and the teacher outside the principal’s office, which attracted attention of other students and passersby in the area, which is close to the customs barracks.
Customs maintained that when the principal of the school eventually met with the two parties and saw the level of bruises on the student’s body, he offered N5,000 for his treatment, an offer the parents politely rejected and opted to take care of the medical expenses instead.
The command pointed out that neither the school authorities nor the NUT wrote any petition against any of its officials allegedly involved in the school attack and wondered how a matter that had been amicably resolved in the principal’s office suddenly become a subject of sensational headlines.
“We have high regards for teachers and we cannot do anything against them since they are working hard to build the Nigeria of our dream,” the statement said, promising to however take drastic action against any officials found to have taken the laws into their hands.
It was gathered that the Comptroller-General of the NCS, Abdullahi Dikko, who is on a working visit to South Africa, has already ordered an high-powered headed by a Deputy Comptroller of Customs, Mr. Usman Bumba, into the school incident .