Lagos residents buying seized Customs rice
By Our Reporter
An eye witness, Comfort James, has narrated the event that culminated into the death of a pregnant woman and six others who were among thousands of people who converge on the customs’ zonal office on Harvey Road, Yaba, Lagos on Friday to buy a 25kg bag of rice at N10,000.
James said the open sales of rice by the customs was not organised and the customs could not control the crowd. She added that the atmosphere got worse when some thugs in camouflage tried to manoeuvre their way into the premises of the customs to buy the rice.
She 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.”
The 27-year-old woman further said people were trampling on others just to get into the premises of the customs.
Prior to the open sales of the rice, the customs had said that the move was to cushion the economic hardship occasioned by the soaring costs of essential food items in the country.
The sales which started on a peaceful note were monitored and supervised by the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Wale Adeniyi.
Customs’ spokesman, Abdullahi Maiwada, said, “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.”
A medical doctor, Adunola Yemoka, in a post on X, said one of the victims who was rushed to her hospital later died.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State said one of its members, Mrs Adebanjo Comfort Funmilayo, was among the victims of the stampede.
