Police Investigate Port Harcourt Stampede Deaths

Follow

( 0 Followers )

X

Follow

E-mail : *

Follow Unfollow

Rivers State Police command has ordered investigation into Tuesday’s stampede in Port Harcourt where two people, a man and a pregnant woman, were crushed to death as an uncontrollable crowd surged to collect Christmas palliatives from a Bitcoin networking organisation.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Nnamdi Omoni, who confirmed the two deaths, said the Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mukan, ordered the investigation with a view to bringing those culpable to justice.

The incident occurred at within the premises of Inksnation Marketing company, at Rumuodara along the East-West road. The company had asked those that registered with it to come and collect some packaged foodstuff as end-of-year gifts for keeping faith with the organization.

But the premises was invaded by thousands of people, most of who did not even register with the organisation. The crowd soon became uncontrollable as officials of the company tried to sort out those to benefit from the sharing of the palliatives.

A surge followed and at least two people were crushed to death. Many other people sustained injuries while others lost shoes, phones and other personal belongings in the stampede.

An eyewitness who survived the stampede,
Ben Worlu said a pregnant woman died in the stampede. He said the deceased had asked her husband to accompany her to the place to get her goods. But she was crushed in the stampede.

The PPRO Of Rivers State Command Nnamdi Omoni said, “INKSNATION, a Non-Governmental Organization to her registered members from Ikwerre, Emohua and Obio/Akpor Local Government Areas, when suddenly there was a stampede leading to the death of two people, while some sustained various degrees of injuries and are currently receiving medical attention.”