Two elderly women have sad lost their lives in a highly
competitive quest to partake of Ramadan gifts shared by Jagaban in Lagos.
Two elderly women died on Saturday in a violent struggle
for Ramadan gifts distributed on behalf of a former Lagos State Governor,
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, at Onikan Stadium in the state.
Sunday Punch reported
that a middle-aged man fainted in the commotion, while several others
were injured during the distribution by the Iyaloja General of Nigeria and
Tinubu’s daughter, Mrs. Folashade Tinubu-Ojo.
The Lagos State Police Command, however, said no deaths
were recorded from the stampede. Each gift pack was said to have included a
package of rice, salt, noodles and sugar, as well as a sum of N1,500 contained
in an envelope, which were given to each person.
It was learnt that the injured were rushed to the Marina
General Hospital, while corpses of the deceased women, who were said to be in
their sixties, were deposited at the hospital’s morgue.
An eyewitness, Musbau Adeyanju, who spoke with a
correspondent on the telephone on Saturday evening, said a crowd had besieged
the stadium around 8am to collect the gifts, with males and females maintaining
separate queues.
He said the exercise was smooth until around 11.30am when
it was disrupted by some impatient persons. Adeyanju said, “We started entering
the stadium with a pass as early as 8am. The distribution started at 10am and
each person was collecting a bag containing rice, semovita, noodles, sugar and
salt and a sum of N1,500. It was Iyaloja General that represented Asiwaju.
“Around 11.30am, people became impatient for the fear
that the gifts might not get to them. There was a stampede and two persons died
in the process. Their bodies were laid under a tent, while an ambulance that
would carry them was being awaited. It was when the clothes that were used to
cover their faces were removed that I discovered they were elderly women.
“Their bodies were eventually taken to the mortuary by an
ambulance of the Lagos State Ambulance Services. Several people were also
injured. I left the place after the women died.”
Another eyewitness, who identified himself only as Idris,
said some hoodlums cashed in on the stampede to dispossess people of their valuables.
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