Lagos Stampede!!! Pregnant Woman, 6 Others Feared Dead Amid Struggle For Customs Rice

• Police, Army officials whipped civilians, hijacked rice bags – eyewitnesses
• Customs gave out free rice bags to appease injured victims

By Kenneth Jukpor & Deborah James

A pregnant woman and six other persons are feared dead following a stampede that ensued at the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Zonal Office, Harvey Road, Yaba on Friday as the Service commenced sale of 25kg rice at N10,000 to alleviate the food crisis in the nation.

News Diet gathered that the process had been orderly until around 12noon when the crowd became uncontrollable and overwhelmed the Customs personnel. However, pandemonium struck at 1pm when a set of armed military personnel stormed the venue and began using horse whips, teargas and electric shockers on citizens striving to get bags of rice.

Speaking with our correspondent, an eyewitness, Comfort James said: “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 organised 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.”

“When I got there, only few soldiers were there but more came in their numbers by 1pm. They were over 50 officers and they started using whips and electric shockers to disperse the crowd. They started hitting people, pushing people to force their way in just to collect rice. They collected rice for themselves and give to their friends.”

“Amid the rush and struggling, a wall fell on over 15 people and some were severely injured. Armies were still flogging the people that fell. It was at that period that, Customs carried those who injured and gave them rice for free without the 10,000 payment. I saw a woman fall and her mouth started foaming like she was epileptic. She was carried away in an ambulance.”

The 27-year old lady lamented that people were trampling and squashing others just to get into the premises.

“I heard noise of people saying some people died but I left and went home thinking about the tragic experience,” she said.

Athough efforts to get an official response from Customs via the National Public Relations Officer, Abdullahi Maiwada, were futile until presstime as he couldn’t pick calls.

One of the Customs officers at the event, told News Diet that the sharing process was successful in the early part of the day until armed military stormed the premises demanding rice bags.

According to the source, the Army officials had been encouraged to return to their barracks where the rice would be sent to; but the military officers insisted on collecting the rice at Yaba.

The Customs source, however, posited that the Service can be satisfied with fulfilling the objective of reaching out to over 4000 Nigerians including more that 70 physically challenged persons with the food items.

However, victims of the stampede have been reported dead on several social media platforms with Dr. Adunola @yemoka on X revealing that a man who was rushed into her hospital died hours later.

“A man just died in my hospital, he was stamped on after falling at the custom office trying to get rice. He was on the queue with his wife when he fell down and couldn’t get up on time which resulted to people stamping on him. So sad. Survived by very young children. Naija 😢😢” Adunola shared on her X account at 6:15pm on Friday.

The wife of the deceased, according to Adunola, had claimed that her husband fell during the stampede and more people climbed over him instead of helping him up.

Our correspondent gathered that a pregnant woman was pushed into a ditch amid the struggle to access the Customs N10,000 rice.

Meanwhile, another eyewitness said; “Baba, I went to that Customs place in Yaba today (on Friday) to buy rice. Let’s just say this country has zero chance of being better. They beat the shit out of us on the queue. Uniform officers from all forces were given priority. There were at least 10,000 people. When I had enough, I went back to my house. My 5 hours wasted.”

While the deaths are yet to be confirmed by the necessary authorities, observers have advised Customs management to be more systematic and decentralize the locations for the sale of the food items in future to prevent stampedes.