ABOUT 20 persons might have died in the stampede that occurred on Friday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, it was gathered yesterday.
The tragic event which was said to have happened at about 10pm, occurred at a valedictory ceremony for the outgoing governor of Kwara State, Bukola Saraki.
However, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Kwara State, has described the incident as one caused by the failure of the PDP government to frontally address the problem of poverty in the State.
The governor and his entourage had left before the incident occurred. The incident occurred at the "Mandate House," a building which serves as Saraki’s campaign headquarters and the ceremony was said to have been well attended by supporters of PDP in the State. It was gathered that a part of the building’s fence collapsed and fell on the victims. They were said to have queued up for money and four yards of Ankara fabric.
A similar stampede occurred at the same venue late last year during the Eid-el-Kabir celebration in which about four supporters of the PDP died. Corpses of the victims said to be mostly women it was gathered had been deposited in hospitals within the metropolis.
Those confirmed dead in the hospitals include Afusat Maja, Rukayat Isiaka,
Titilayo Suleiman, Balau Jimoh and Iyabo Isiak. Others areLaro Issa, Ayoka Anafi, Kaliatu Oba, Fasilat Alagbo, Zayadel Ayoka Ganiyu and Nimota Saliman.
The state police command said it had commenced investigation into the cause of Friday night stampede. Because of the incident which the government described as unfortunate, Governor Saraki cancelled all the valedictory activities earlier scheduled for yesterday. The Command’s spokesman, Dabo Ezekiel (ASP) who confirmed the incident, declined comments on the number of casualties.
He said the police had commenced investigations to unravel the cause of the incident. Investigations showed that some people had been arrested in connection with the incident, but the Command’s spokesman did not confirm that.
On today’s inauguration of the new governor of the State, Alhaji AbdulFatah Ahmed, Ezekiel said that the police had mobilized both men and materials to ensure a hitch-free ceremony. The Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to Governor Bukola Saraki, Alhaji Masu’d Adebimpe had in a statement conveyed the sympathy of the government to the entire PDP family in the State over the death of two of its members who lost their lives in the stampede.
He said the governor, who expressed shock and sadness over the development, has directed security operatives in the State to commence full investigation into the incident.
According to him "preliminary investigation by the police revealed that some hoodlums while attempting to rob party women at the valedictory ceremony had pulled down the fence of the venue which resulted in a stampede that led to the loss of lives."
Kwara ACN in a statement blamed the deaths of scores of people at the PDP Mandate Campaign Office on what it called the PDP-led state government’s hand-to-mouth politics which the opposition party claims often leads to avoidable deaths.
The party also accused the PDP-led government of allegedly wanting to hush up the incident by calling it an "accident in which two people died," and said the PDP’s habit of doling out handouts to the impoverished masses, rather than evolve serious anti-poverty policies, underscores its failures over the past eight years.
ACN also said such attempts to trivialise the deaths amount to insulting the families of the victims, recalling that similar deaths had occurred at the same PDP office last year with similar attempt to bury the story.
"We condole with the families of the people who died in a stampede in AlhajiAbdulfatah Ahmed’s campaign office in Ilorin on Friday evening. May they rest in peace in the bosom of the lord and may their families have the fortitude to bear the loss," Kwara ACN Chairman Kayode Olawepo said in a statement in Ilorin .
"We condemn in the strongest terms the rather insensitive and pathetic attempt by the Kwara State PDP to treat with levity and to attempt to suppress the true facts surrounding the death of many Kwarans at the Abdulfatah Ahmed’s campaign office.
Reports are that as many as 70 people died in a stampede on Friday while scrambling for money, bales of cloth and other greek gifts being given out by the PDP. In a barefaced lie borne out of insensitivity and disrespect to the families of the deceased the government has sought to pass off the tragic incident as "an accident in which two people died".
"The remote cause of these tragic deaths is the failure of the PDP government to address in any meaningful way, with sound and well thought out policies, the poverty levels in the State. Instead, the PDP-led government continues to be contented with dishing out largesse and it does so with catastrophic consequences. We recall that last year, at the same place in the same way, there were multiple deaths of Kwarans at their hands. That tragic and unfortunate incident was hushed up in the same way as they are now seeking to do.
"It would seem that not only has the PDP-led government failed in their duties as a government to those who lost their lives while they were alive, it is also failing to honour their memories and their families in death. How long must people continue to die meaninglessly because of a failure of a government? The government must put a stop to this ‘hand-to mouth politics’."
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