No fewer than three people reportedly lost their lives on Wednesday during a stampede in Magodo GRA, Lagos state. The stampede occurred at the residence of a Muslim faithful while distributing rice and N5,000 each as Ramadan gift to a crowd of faithful who had thronged his home along PSSDC road.
When our correspondent visited the scene at about 8.30pm, a large crowd of people were seen struggling to get their share of the gifts.
Residents of the estate who spoke to our correspondent said the sponsor does the distribution annually for Muslim faithful and others.
Our correspondent also sighted the lifeless body of a middle-aged woman who had apparently been trampled on in the course of the stampede.
A resident, who identified himself as Ramon, said, “Two men have been taken away now. They were both vomiting blood in the mouth. Efforts to revive them were not successful. This woman is the third person. As you can see, we have been trying to resuscitate her for about 10 minutes now to see if could be revived.
Another resident, Augustine John, said, “We all came here for the gifts but unfortunately people lost their lives during the struggle”.
He claimed that the sad event was engineered by police officers at the scene. “The police were the cause of it at the beginning. They started by shooting tear gas at us, and in the process while people were trying to run for their lives, the stampede occurred.
Our correspondent also witnessed the presence of police operatives and Magodo security men at the scene.
Effort to reach the Lagos state police public relations officer, ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole, was not successful as he couldn’t be reached at the time of filling this report.
