BY ANKELI EMMANUEL, Sokoto –
No fewer than 9 persons have lost their lives and over 30 others sustained various degrees of injury during a stampede that occured at the residence of Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamako in Sokoto.
Though, at the time of filing this report, the Police Public Relations Officer, Sokoto State Command, ASP Ahmed Rufai, said they working towards getting the actual number of casualties.
“‘We are aware and we are on it to get the actual number of the death…”, ASP Rufai replied to inquiry on the actual casualty figure.
The incident according to an eye witness, was said to have happened in the night when needy in their thousands on that faithful day , thronged the residence of Senator Wamakko for grains, fabrics and money.
Senator Wamakko, a former Governor of Sokoto State, is cherished by many in the state for allowing his personal residence turned into a Mecca of sort for those seeking succour and assistance of various forms.
Senator Aliyu Wamakko (APC-Sokoto),The Senator equally distributes sallah items to thousands of Muslim faithful especially during the Ramadan periods.
It is therefore in one of those occasions that, the crowd got swelled up beyond imagination and the struggle for the fittest led to stampede where 9 persons, including a personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) were said to have lost their lives.
Reacting to the incident, the Sokoto State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while.expressing their deep sadness over the incident, also extended their heartfelt sympathies to the families of those who lost their lives in the incident and prayed for the recovery of those who sustained injuries.
The PDP in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Hassan Sahabi Sanyinnawal, however, called on the Senator to devise a more humanely responsible manner of assisting the needy rather than subjecting them to untimely death by poor arrangements.
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