Brave Dickson
Muslims in Rivers State have mourned those killed at a church stampede in Port Harcourt, describing the incident as avoidable.
It was gathered that the Kings Assembly Church had organised a palliative programme at the GRA axis of the state capital for the less privileged persons which unfortunately led to a stampede killing scores of people.
The Rivers State Police Command through its Public Relations Officer, Grace Iringe-Koko had confirmed the incident putting the death toll at 31.
Sympathising with the families that lost their loved ones at the tragic incident, the leader of the Rivers State Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Nasir Uhor told our correspondent that the tragedy would have been avoided if wisdom was applied.
“If the organisers of the church palliative programme had learnt from the stampede of Ink Nation at Rumoudara few years ago, this unfortunate incident that has claimed 31 lives wouldn’t have happened.
“Organisers of crowd incentive events should always have stampede at the back of their mind and plan adequately to avert stampede.
“Event arena that is not wide enough nor has several entrances, should not be used to host crowded events.
“Better still, the church would have used its branches to host the programme in order to lessen the population that will influx a single venue,” he said.
The state Islamic leader also called on security agencies to always help organisers of crowd oriented events to manage and control their attendees in order to avert future stampede.
