Five people have been charged before the Ota Magistrate Court in Ogun State after police officers were allegedly attacked while transporting a handcuffed suspect to a station in the Ota area.

The Ogun State Police Command said the incident happened on 2 October 2026 around The Bells area of Iyana-Iyesi, Ota, after officers intercepted a suspect allegedly carrying a large quantity of substances suspected to be Indian hemp.

According to the command, the suspect escaped after a group of people allegedly ambushed the patrol team and attacked the officers with cutlasses, stones and bottles.

The police said some officers were injured during the confrontation, while their operational vehicle was also damaged.

How the suspect escaped

The police said officers were taking the handcuffed suspect to the station when they came under attack.

The alleged assault disrupted the operation and enabled the suspect to escape, according to the command.

The incident has prompted further police operations in the area as officers seek to identify and arrest other people allegedly involved in the attack.

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Five suspects charged

Following what the police described as intelligence-led operations, five suspects were arrested.

They were identified as Morenikeji Badmus, 36; Adedoja Segun, 40; Jeremiah Odise Ugbede Onride, 49; Mike Stephen, 28; and David Odeh, 32.

The suspects were arraigned on allegations including conspiracy, serious assault on police officers, obstruction of lawful duty and conduct likely to cause a breach of peace.

The police said efforts were continuing to arrest other suspects who allegedly fled after the incident.

The allegations against the five suspects have not been established by a court.

Why the case matters

The incident highlights the risks that can arise when members of the public physically confront law enforcement officers during an ongoing operation.

It also raises questions about the security of police personnel and suspects being transported during arrests, particularly where members of the public attempt to interfere with an operation.

The police have urged residents to avoid physical confrontations with officers and use lawful channels to challenge actions they believe are improper.

Police warning

The Commissioner of Police in Ogun State, CP Bode Ojajuni, said the protection of officers carrying out lawful duties remained a priority for the command.

He urged members of the public to channel grievances through established legal procedures rather than resorting to violence.

The command said investigations and efforts to apprehend other suspects were still ongoing.

As businesses increasingly turn to artificial intelligence to handle customer enquiries, a new customer-service challenge is emerging: how to make technology faster without making organisations harder to reach.

The issue is becoming more important as companies automate routine interactions through chatbots, automated phone systems and digital self-service platforms.

For customers dealing with a failed transaction, an unresolved complaint, an urgent travel problem or a service disruption, however, the ability to speak to a human being can still determine whether an organisation is seen as trustworthy.

Customer experience leader Olufunmilola ‘Funmie’ Aluko argues that the race towards automation should not obscure the basic requirement of customer service: ensuring that someone is available to take ownership when a problem cannot be solved automatically.

Writing to mark Customer Service Week, Aluko, who is Chief Brand and Marketing Officer and Head of Customer Experience at Union Bank of Nigeria, said the person who answers a customer’s call often becomes the organisation in that moment.

“The person on the other end of the line is not a cost to be managed. For the customer in that moment, she is the organisation.”

The human gap in an AI-driven service economy

The argument comes as companies globally increase investment in artificial intelligence for customer support.

Gartner reported in August 2026 that 87% of customers believe companies using generative AI for customer service should provide an option to reach a human agent. The survey of 3,566 business and consumer customers was conducted in February and March 2026.

The research also found that half of customers said their interactions were easier when companies used generative AI.

But Gartner warned against forcing customers through AI systems before allowing them to reach a person, particularly when automated interactions have failed.

“Service leaders should not use GenAI as a mandatory first step for every issue,” Gartner analyst Eric Keller said.

The findings suggest that the question for businesses is no longer simply whether they should automate customer service, but where automation should end and human intervention should begin.

Nigeria’s customer service problem is also about resolution

For Nigerian businesses, the challenge extends beyond access to an agent.

The 2025 KPMG West Africa Banking Industry Customer Experience Survey, based on more than 35,000 retail customers, 5,000 SMEs and 600 corporates, found that customer experience performance in Nigeria had remained broadly flat.

More significantly, Resolution remained the lowest-rated customer experience pillar among retail banking customers for the fifth consecutive year.

Customers reported delays in closing complaints, unclear communication and continuing service disruptions. KPMG said the experience gap between the highest- and lowest-rated banks had also narrowed from almost eight percentage points a decade ago to less than three.

That means customers are increasingly comparing organisations not only on whether they provide digital services, but on how effectively they solve problems when those services fail.

For Aluko, this distinction is crucial.

“Deflection and resolution are different things,” she said, arguing that a contact may appear to have been successfully contained simply because a frustrated customer abandoned the attempt to get help.

The cost of making customers give up

Poor service is not simply an inconvenience for consumers. It can affect loyalty and revenue.

PwC’s 2025 Customer Experience Survey found that 52% of consumers had stopped using or buying from a brand because of a bad experience with its products or services, while 29% said they had stopped because of poor customer experience either online or in person.

PwC also found a significant gap between how executives and consumers perceive loyalty: 89% of executives believed customer loyalty had increased in recent years, compared with 39% of consumers.

For companies, the implication is straightforward.

A customer who cannot reach anyone, receives conflicting answers or repeatedly has to explain the same problem may not complain formally. They may simply move to another provider.

Even Gen Z still picks up the phone

The assumption that younger consumers want entirely digital customer service is also being challenged.

McKinsey found that 71% of Gen Z respondents considered live calls the quickest and easiest way to reach customer care and explain an issue. The finding came from its Customer Service Survey conducted in May 2023.

This does not mean customers reject digital channels.

Rather, it suggests that customers want choice: self-service when it is convenient and a human being when the problem requires explanation, judgement or reassurance.

Gartner’s 2026 research similarly found that customers are increasingly using generative AI to complete tasks, but still expect companies to maintain access to human support.

Also Read: Ondo Air Crash: Swamp Search Intensifies as Aiyedatiwa Deploys Amphibious Machines

What should businesses automate?

Aluko is not arguing against technology.

She said she has supported investment in AI-enabled contact platforms and believes automation can improve service when used to remove repetitive work.

A customer checking a balance, tracking an order or resetting a password may not need to speak to an employee.

The problem begins when technology becomes a barrier rather than a shortcut.

An automated system that gathers information before transferring a customer to an appropriate employee can make service more efficient.

An endless menu, chatbot loop or unanswered switchboard can have the opposite effect.

Gartner’s research points in the same direction, saying AI is more useful when it understands the customer’s intent, attempts resolution where appropriate and provides a clear route to human support when necessary.

The overlooked people behind the customer experience

Aluko’s argument also expands the definition of customer service beyond contact-centre employees.

Receptionists, switchboard operators, security personnel, hospital admissions staff and workers answering general enquiries can all become a customer’s first interaction with an organisation.

Yet these roles are sometimes given less training, authority and recognition than the technology supporting them.

“The receptionist and the switchboard operator are frequently among the least trained and least valued people in the building, and yet they are its first voice and its first face,” she said.

Giving frontline employees enough information and authority to resolve problems, she argued, can turn them into some of an organisation’s most valuable brand assets.

Complaints should become business intelligence

Another issue is what organisations do with complaints after they have been recorded.

Nigeria’s consumer protection framework gives consumers avenues to seek redress. The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission operates a complaint-resolution system that allows consumers to submit complaints, provide supporting documents and track cases.

But Aluko argues that recording complaints should be only the beginning.

“Logging is not learning.”

She believes frontline employees should feed recurring complaints back into the organisation so that businesses can identify and fix the underlying causes.

The distinction is between solving one customer’s problem and preventing the same problem from affecting thousands of others.

KPMG’s finding that resolution remains Nigeria’s weakest retail banking experience pillar reinforces the significance of that approach.

Why reachability matters in Nigeria

The human element becomes particularly significant in markets where customers interact with organisations through several channels.

Nigerians may use mobile apps, USSD, WhatsApp, social media, telephone lines, physical branches or offices, depending on their circumstances.

A service strategy that works perfectly on one platform may fail on another.

Aluko therefore argues that organisations should treat every customer access point as a potential “front door”.

That includes the traditional telephone line and reception desk, even as businesses invest heavily in digital channels.

AI investment is rising, but people are not disappearing

The evidence does not point towards an entirely human or entirely automated future.

Gartner reported in August that customer-service leaders had increased AI spending by 38%, while overall service and support budgets grew by only 2%. Yet the same research found that live chat and phone remained among the most valuable customer-service channels today.

Earlier Gartner analysis also predicted that none of the Fortune 500 companies would completely eliminate human customer service by 2028.

The emerging model is therefore likely to be a combination of technology and people: AI handling routine interactions and assisting employees, while human agents take responsibility for complicated or sensitive cases.

Aluko’s challenge to business leaders

For Customer Service Week, Aluko has proposed a simple test for organisations.

She wants leaders to identify one thing that makes their organisation difficult to reach, spend time with receptionists or switchboard operators, read customer complaints in their original form and give at least one frontline employee greater authority to resolve a problem.

She also recommends that executives call their own organisations or walk through their front doors as ordinary customers.

The objective is to experience the service from the customer’s side rather than relying exclusively on performance dashboards.

A waiting-time statistic may look acceptable in a report, she noted, while feeling extremely long to a customer waiting for help during a crisis.

What this means for customers

For consumers, the debate over AI and human customer service is ultimately less about technology than about accountability.

People may welcome faster digital services, provided they can still reach someone when automation cannot solve their problem.

For businesses, the challenge is to ensure that efficiency does not come at the expense of trust.

As Aluko puts it, technology can make organisations faster, but it cannot by itself decide whether a customer’s problem genuinely matters.

“The technology will keep improving, and I will keep welcoming it,” she said.

“What it will not do is care. Caring remains stubbornly and valuably human.”

For Customer Service Week, that may be the more important measure of the extra mile: not how many interactions an organisation can automate, but whether customers can still find a human being when it matters most.

About the author of the original commentary

Olufunmilola “Funmie” Aluko is a customer experience and brand leader with 25 years of experience in financial services. She is Chief Brand and Marketing Officer and Head of Customer Experience at Union Bank of Nigeria, where she oversees the bank’s brand, marketing, communications and customer experience agenda, including its Contact Centre.

She is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP), Certified Experience Management Professional (XMP) and Associate Registered Practitioner in Advertising (arpa). She serves on the Africa Regional Council of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA).

She holds an MBA from Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, and a BA (Hons) from Lagos State University.

Search and recovery efforts at the site of Monday’s Nigerian Air Force aircraft crash in Igbokoda, Ondo State, have entered a difficult phase, with the main wreckage still believed to be buried beneath the swamp.

Ondo State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa visited the crash site on Wednesday and ordered search teams to continue efforts to recover the victims and locate the main body of the aircraft.

The governor said parts of bodies, clothing and aircraft debris had been recovered, but the cockpit and larger sections of the aircraft had yet to be located.

The aircraft, which was travelling from Benin to Lagos, crashed in Igbokoda, the headquarters of Ilaje Local Government Area, on Monday.

The Nigerian Air Force subsequently confirmed the aircraft as an ATR-42 operating a routine mission. The service said search and rescue operations had been activated after the crash.

Swamp makes recovery difficult

Aiyedatiwa said the search had been complicated by the nature of the terrain, with the aircraft believed to have gone deep into the swamp.

He said the main wreckage was still not visible as of the time of his visit, while Nigerian Navy personnel and local divers were searching deeper sections of the area.

To improve access, the governor directed the Ondo State Ministry of Works to deploy two amphibious machines, commonly known as swamp buggies.

The machines, according to the governor, have helped emergency teams move larger boats closer to the crash location while also allowing excavation of the swamp in the search for the aircraft.

The operation involves personnel from the Nigerian Navy and Air Force, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), local divers and other responders.

Earlier reports from the crash site also highlighted the difficult terrain and the depth of the swamp as major obstacles to recovery efforts.

Governor says pilot steered aircraft away from community

Aiyedatiwa also drew attention to the aircraft’s final moments, saying residents who witnessed the incident reported hearing a sound they associated with a possible engine problem before the aircraft came down.

He stressed, however, that the exact cause of the crash could only be established through investigation.

According to the governor, the aircraft appeared to be heading towards the community before the pilot manoeuvred it away from populated areas.

He said the aircraft eventually came down about 200 metres from the community and entered the swamp.

Aiyedatiwa said the reported manoeuvre may have prevented a wider disaster in a populated area, although the circumstances surrounding the crash remain subject to investigation.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has separately directed the Nigerian Air Force to conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of the crash.

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Search continues for victims and wreckage

The governor described the crash site as a “very gory sight”, saying responders had recovered human remains, clothing and jackets believed to belong to Air Force personnel.

He said the recovered items were being preserved for further investigation.

Aiyedatiwa also disclosed that aviation fuel was entering the surrounding water, raising concerns about pollution at the crash location.

The search operation is therefore focused not only on recovering the remaining victims but also on locating the aircraft’s main wreckage and preserving evidence that could assist investigators.

Captain Andy Alemongwa, Commander of the Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base, Igbokoda, briefed the governor on the progress of the recovery operation.

What is known about the crash

The Nigerian Air Force said the aircraft was on a routine mission from Benin to Lagos when it crashed on October 5.

Initial reports about the number of people aboard varied, but the NAF later confirmed that 25 people were on board and that there were no survivors.

The Defence Headquarters has also ordered an investigation, while recovery operations continue at the crash site.

The incident has prompted mourning across the country, with President Tinubu expressing condolences to the families of those who died and directing a full investigation.

A community spared a larger impact

For residents of Igbokoda, the location of the crash has added another dimension to the tragedy.

Aiyedatiwa said the aircraft could have caused a much larger disaster had it come down directly within the community.

Instead, according to the governor’s account, the aircraft ended up in the swamp, where rescuers have since faced the difficult task of navigating muddy terrain and deep water to reach the wreckage.

The governor commiserated with the families of the deceased personnel and the Nigerian Air Force, describing the victims as young Nigerians who had committed themselves to defending the country.

He urged Nigerians to continue praying for the families as recovery and investigative efforts continue.

What happens next

The immediate priority remains locating the main wreckage and recovering the remaining victims.

Investigators will also need to establish what happened during the aircraft’s final moments and determine the factors that led to the crash.

Until that process is completed, accounts from witnesses about what the aircraft sounded like or how it moved before impact should not be treated as a confirmed explanation for the accident.