Falana demands justice for seven killed in Customs office stampede

Falana demands justice for seven killed in Customs office stampede

 A human rights lawyer, and an activist, Mr Femi Falana, SAN,
has demanded that the Nigeria Customs Service should compensate the families of
seven persons who died in a stampede that ensued during the sale of low-cost
rice at the Customs office in Lagos.

 

Recall that the Nigeria Customs announced the sale of 25kg
bags of rice for N10,000, following a directive by President Bola Tinubu.

 

However, during the sales, which began on February 23, seven
persons died in a stampede at the Customs Zonal Headquarters in Yaba, Lagos
State.

 

The tragic incident led to the immediate suspension of the
exercise.

 

But, in a statement by Falana, he said it was sad that up
till now the authorities of Customs had not deemed it fit to identify the
families of the victims to at least commiserate with them, adding that the NCS
must take full responsibility for the incident.

 

“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.

 

“However, 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 said.

 

He however, urged the NCS to lift the suspension of the sale
of the remaining bags of rice without any further delay, saying that to avoid
another stampede, the distribution should be carried out through the
appropriate local government councils and local government development areas in
Lagos and other states of the federation.

Source: Falana demands justice for seven killed in Customs office stampede

 - NigerianEye
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