The Seme Border Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has raised alarm over the rate of reported cases of molestation and harassment of female travellers plying the Lagos-Abidjan trade corridor through the Seme border post.
It was alleged that female travellers and traders on the route were being dragged into the bush by some security personnel and raped.
Speaking to newsmen in Lagos, the Area Controller of Seme Customs command, Mr. Timi Bomodi, said the command had launched an investigation into the matter, just as it has set up a complaint desk at the command for victims of such harassment and molestation.
Bomodi said the attention of the Customs was brought to the anomaly by the visiting team of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.
He said the customs on its own has not received any report on the molestation of travelers, but that the service abhors such practices.
He said: “We have not had any report officially by any stakeholders, no woman has reported to us about being molested. We took the report of the committee on this matter, and we are not making any light of it.
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“If that kind of thing exists, then we want to assure the users of the route or corridor that where such an incident occurs, we are more than willing to face it head-on. We will want to know where they occurred, when they occurred, and the persons that perpetuated them because it is crazy, it is really crazy.
“As law enforcement agents, we will be taking advantage of the very vulnerable sector of our population, especially those that are engaged in their legitimate businesses and then some people will want to take advantage of them, we abhor these kinds of practices and we assure members of the public that if any officer is found to involved in such act, that officer will be dealt with.
“The command has set up a complaint desk to address the molestation of females on this corridor.
“Recently, we got a report from the visiting team of ECOWAS that there have been reported cases of females using the Lagos-Seme corridor and that the users of this road are being subjected to one form of molestation or the other.”
In a related development, Bomodi also disclosed that there has been an increase in the movement of narcotics and other dangerous drugs from Ghana as a total of 1,254 parcels of Sativa Cannabis were intercepted within the first three months of this year.
