‘There Was No Security, No Police’ – Witness Narrates How Ibadan Stampede Claimed Lives

Idayat Abubakar, who witnessed the children’s funfair stampede, which happened at the Islamic High School in Bashorun, Ibadan, Oyo state, has recounted how the tragic incident claimed many lives.

Naija News reports that Abubakar, in an interview with TheCable, revealed that over 2,000 people travelled from Ogbomosho, Iseyin, and Osun state to the event venue on Tuesday and camped inside the school, enduring the crisp cold of the night.

According to her, the CEO of Agidigbo FM, Oriyomi Hazmat, had told the attendees that ticket sharing would begin at 6 am. However, Hamzat did not arrive at the venue until a few minutes before 8 am on D-day, and with his arrival came chaos.

Abubakar stated that there was no security or police at the event, which made it impossible to control the attendees.

Hamzat was said to have tried to manage the crowd from the gate’s entrance but was overwhelmed.

She said, “As of 10 pm on Tuesday, when I left the school, there were already about 2,000 people in the school, if not more.

“If you ask why someone like me was there, the event was not for the poor. For me, it was more or less like fun, like we went for a picnic; we had our dishes and lots of snacks for our kids, watched those that would win the scholarship and made posts on social media. I bought new shoes for my baby and made a new hairdo for her, just for the event.

“Immediately he got to the scene, people started hailing him. When he saw the crowd, he put his hand on his head. They had to smuggle him inside. While opening the gate for him, people rushed in and started falling on themselves. There was no security, no police.

“My younger sister got injured; she was stepped on with her baby. Till now, she has not recovered.

“A lot of us were trapped with our babies. I was backing my baby, and my sister was holding hers. So, when they pushed her, she fell on the floor. She fainted twice, and when I saw her, they were already pouring water on her head. At one point, the baby could not even breathe.

“They opened the walkway gate when the stampede started at the main gate. I was at the front of the gate, so I was able to walk in unhurt.

“When he could not control the crowd anymore, he and his boys had to jump the fence to control people from behind. But at this point, it was already out of control. He started hitting people with a big stick to stop them from falling further on those at the front,” Abubakar said.

“That was when I started hearing different things. We started seeing casualties; people fainted, lost their phones and belongings, and people fell on their children.”

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