AFRIQUECAN: THE Nigeria Customs Service – NCS, has been asked to compensate the families of victims of a stampede in Lagos State last month.
This demand was made on Sunday, by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria – SAN, Femi Falana.
“It is sad to note that the authorities of the Nigeria Customs Service have not deemed it fit to identify the bereaved families of the deceased and commiserate with them. As a matter of fact, the deceased persons have been blamed for their ‘impatience’’ Falana said.
“Since it is common knowledge that similar distribution of food items to poor people had recorded stampedes in the recent past, the authorities of the Nigeria Customs Service must accept full responsibility for the blatant negligence that led to the avoidable death of the seven citizens,’’ he added.
“Since a bag of rice was selling for N77,000 at the material time, it ought to have occurred to the Nigeria Customs Service that its Zonal Headquarters in Yaba would not be able to contain the crowd that had been invited to purchase a 25kg bag of rice at N10,000.
“Therefore, the authorities of the Nigeria Customs Service should take urgent steps to identify the bereaved families of the seven deceased citizens with a view to paying them adequate monetary compensation.
The human rights lawyer however, warned that ‘’if our advice is ignored by the authorities, we shall not hesitate to approach the Federal High Court to enforce the fundamental right of each of the deceased persons to life as guaranteed by section 33 of the Nigerian Constitution and article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.”
Falana also asked the NCS to “lift the suspension of the distribution of the remaining bags of rice without any further delay.”
He said that the distribution should be carried out through the appropriate local government councils and local government development areas in Lagos State and other states to avoid another stampede.
It would be recalled that on February 23, 2024, some persons lost their lives in a stampede during the purchase of seized rice put on sale by the NCS in Lagos at subsidised prices.
