- * APC Mourns, Says Death Was Avoidable
By Tessy Daminabo (Bureau Chief South South, in PortHarcourt)
It was a bloody weekend in PortHarcourt, Rivers State, as no fewer than 31 people were killed on Saturday morning when a stampede broke out during a church charity event where food was being distributed, police in Rivers state said on Saturday.
According to the Spokeswoman of the Rivers State Police Command, Grace Iringe-Koko, the death toll involved 31 people in the disaster that occurred in Port harcourt city, in Rivers state, South South Nigeria.
The event was reportedly organised by a Pentecostal Church known as King’s Assembly Church which offered food and gifts for the poor at a sports field. It was during a mass stampede to collect the gift items that over 31 persons were trampled upon to death.
In recent times in Nigeria, there have been several cases of similar stampede that result in tragedies over food distribution, including an aid agency food programme in Borno State, North East Nigeria, where seven women were trampled to death in 2021.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in it's reaction to the weekend tragedy, has expressed deep sympathy to the families of the victims of the bloody stampede, saying that the death was avoidable.
The party said it received with "extreme sadness", the news of the stampede that resulted in the unfortunate loss of over 30 lives at the Polo Club, Port Harcourt, early Saturday morning, where a crowd had assembled to receive some form of empowerment through free shopping for sundry items offered by an evangelical church.
The APC in a statement on Saturday, May 28, 2022 by it's State Publicity Secretary, Senibo Chris Finebone, said, "It is heartbreaking that a supposed well intended programme of the church to save lives resulted in loss of several lives.
"While we appreciate churches and other voluntary organizations that strive to fill in the gaps that exist in the living conditions of the poor of society, we make bold to insist that such organizations should embed safety considerations into whatever they do. We know how our entire society treats issues of safety with indefensible levity and this has remained the major cause of avoidable disasters across our land.
"We cannot pretend to appear surprised that no word has come from the governor of the State from the sideline of his Party’s Presidential Primary taking place at Abuja, even as we believe that security report of the sad incident has reached him since morning. Not when the governor sees himself as the Chief Executive Officer of politics and not the Chief Executive Officer of governance in Rivers State.
"We send our most profound condolences to the families that lost their loved ones to the sad incident this morning; the clergy and members of Kings Assembly Church and pray that God would receive and grant eternal rest to the souls of the departed", the Rivers APC stated. NNL.
