Seven persons have been kílled in a stampede during the buying of seized rice put on sale by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in Lagos State.
Dozens of people turned up for the open sales on Friday at the customs’ zonal office on Harvey Road, Yaba, Lagos, with a 25kg bag of rice sold for N10,000.
The customs had said that the move was to cushion the economic hardship occasioned by the soaring costs of essential food items in the country.
The sales which started on a peaceful note were monitored and supervised by the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Wale Adeniyi.
It was learned that a pregnant woman and six others dièd in the stampede when armed hoodlums in camouflage gear attempted to force their way into the venue.
Speaking with our correspondent, a witness, Comfort James, said, “You can see videos of the stampede online on X, but I tell you it was worse in reality. I got there by 11am and met an uncontrollable crowd. Customs tried everything they could to control the crowd but couldn’t succeed. It wasn’t organised as we thought it would be. Police came but they didn’t come to aid the distribution; they came to collect bags of rice for themselves.”
The 27-year-old woman further said people were trampling on others just to get into the premises.
Customs’ spokesman, Abdullahi Maiwada, said, “I can’t say if there was any déath, but some people fainted during the stampede and were rushed to the hospital.