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Tears in Ibadan as families mourn victims of carnival stampede 

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Tears in Ibadan as families mourn victims of carnival stampede 

There’s mourning in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital over the death of about 32 children following a stampede at the Islamic Grammar School during a Christmas carnival said to have been organised by the former wife of the  Oni of Ife, Naomi Silekunola Ogunwusi.

Witnesses had blamed lack of adequate planning and unexpected crowd surge for  the stampede.

An eyewitness, who shared her account, confirmed that the situation became uncontrollable as the crowd grew, leading to the stampede and the consequent devastating loss of lives.

Oriyomi Hamzat, a  radio presenter whose Radio Station Agidigbo FM was used  in advertising the event, said he wanted 5,000 participants but because we were not organised, the situation got out of hand.

Concerned citizens of the state have attributed the surge in the crowd to free gifts, such as food items, underlining the extent of the poverty in the country.

Meanwhile, the state governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde has condemned the tragic incident and ordered the arrest of the organisers who sources say, are now in custody.

Also, the Oyo State police  command has started investigating the circumstances which led to the unfortunate  incident and has promised to make its findings  public.

Visits to the hospitals indicates  that some of the  victims are still being attended to, but  journalists were not allowed into the wards.

Some of the parents and relatives of the affected children seen within hospital premises, were also not willing to talk,  as they claimed that they are not in the mood for any conversation yet.

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The hospitals where they were being treated included two state hospitals at Adeoyo in Yemetu area of Ibadan, the University Teaching  Hospital (UCH), the Ring Road Specialist Hospital and some private  hospitals around Basorun in Ibadan, close to the  Islamic Grammar School where the event took place.

Ordinarily the venue of the event was meant  to accommodate 5,000 people but for the wide publicity given it by the popular Agidigbo FM radio station, there were more than the original crowd envisaged. It was said that about 9,000 were in attendance.

Although the incident could not have been that fatal, if the attendees had  taken their time to get into the venue  of the event without rushing.

Sources hinted that the stampede  occured while the attendees were rushing  to force their way through  the gate of the school to the main venue, the field of the school where the event took place.

Meanwhile the incident has been described as a sad one for the people of Oyo state and many notable and concerned citizens of the State  have been sending in condolences to the parents of the affected children and the Oyo State  government.

The condolences were  not, however, sent without condemnations  on the part of the organisers.

It was argued that the main motivator of the program meant  to discover talents and distribute gifts and scholarships, Queen Naomi Ogunwusi, was not well advised because  she could afford to pay for a bigger venue, especially, any of the stadiums in Ibadan.

Queen Naomi is yet to talk about the incident, but Alhaji Oriyomi Hamzat the chairman of Agidigbo FM labelled  as the main brain behind the event has denied having anything to do with the organisation of the event, saying that his station only announced the events to the public. He added that it was not the fault of the station that more people surged to the venue.

However a close associate of the Queen,  who wanted to remain anonymous, said that it was not envisaged  that the crowd would be that much and that the organizers should not be  blamed for what happened, which was rather  unfortunate.

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The Commissioner of Information in Oyo State, Prince Dotun Oyelade, said that the  State government was not involved in the event and they were not also informed.

He called on anyone or organisation that wants to stage such events in future  to endeavour to do proper planning, while the state government has commenced proper investigation into the matter.

Also the  spokesman  of the Oyo State Police Command, Adewale Osifeso said that the investigation of the police would be made public and call for  stricter monitoring of such events  in future.

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