The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has commiserated with family and friends of one of its members, Comfort Adebanjo, and six other Nigerians who lost their lives as a result of a stampede at the Nigeria Customs office in Yaba, Lagos while attempting to purchase seized rice advertised for sale by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in Lagos State.
It was gathered that on Friday 23 February 2024, a ton of buyers flooded the open sales at the customs’ zonal office on Harvey Road, Yaba, Lagos, where a 25kg bag of rice was sold for N10,000.
The sales which commenced on a peaceful note were monitored and supervised by the Comptroller General of Customs Service (CGC), Wale Adeniyi in keeping with the Service’ earlier announcement to carry out the sales in order to soft pedal the economic hardship occasioned by the rising costs of food items across the country.
According to reports, a pregnant woman and six others died in the process of the sales which resulted into a stampede when armed hoodlums in camouflage uniforms attempted to wrestle their way into the venue.
“You can see videos of the stampede online on X, but I tell you it was worse in reality. I got there by 11am and met an uncontrollable crowd. Customs tried everything they could to control the crowd but couldn’t succeed. It wasn’t organized as we thought it would be. Police came but they didn’t come to aid the distribution; they came to collect bags of rice for themselves.” An eye witness, Comfort James, noted.
According to the 27-year-old, people were seen falling over each other in order to get into the premises.
Confirming the incident, Customs’ spokesman, Abdullahi Maiwada, revealed that he could not ascertain if there was any record of deaths however some people were taken to the hospital for medical attention.
“I can’t say if there was any death, but some people fainted during the stampede and were rushed to the hospital.
The activity started peacefully, with the CGC on ground monitoring till 5pm. Our men controlled the crowd until the stampede occurred.” He added.
Meanwhile, a medical doctor, Adunola Yemoka, in a post on X, disclosed that one of the victims of the stampede who was rushed to her hospital later died.
Meantime, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State said one of its members, Mrs Adebanjo Comfort Funmilayo, was among the victims of the incident.
