By Beatrice Gondyi Bauchi
About seven vulnerable persons have died in a stampede trying to benefit from this year’s AYM Shafa’s annual monetery zakkat on Sunday in Bauchi.
This year’s N10, 000 AYM Shafa zakkat to each individual beneficiary, which distribution was held on Jos Road in Bauchi metropolis pulled an unprecedented crowd of would-be beneficiaries that unfortunately resulted in the untimely death of some of the beneficiaries.
The rush by the individuals, mostly youths and women, some even housewives, and the aged to grasp the zakkat, it was also gathered, might not be unconnected with the current economic crunch precipitated by fuel subsidy removal leading to hike in prices of foodstuff and other commodities in the markets.
Witness accounts disclosed that amid the scramble for zakkat allocations, chaos erupted, leading to tragic consequences.
Reports indicate that stones were hurled at law enforcement personnel tasked with maintaining order, exacerbating the situation and prompting the deployment of crowd control measures, including tear gas.
Tragically, the dispersal efforts resulted in casualties, particularly among women and the elderly.
Some witnesses who spoke to newsmen shortly after the incident narrated that no fewer than six persons loss their lives in the scrumble for the zakkat being giving out to beneficiaries by some officials of the AYM Shafa Company Ltd.
A witness, Zainab Muhammad, who spoke to newsmen said that some neighbours and herself that come out for the were unable to get it following a pandemonium which broke out no sooner had they arrived the venue, saying however that some of them were even beaten, and one of her company loss her life in the fracas that broke out.
Another witness, Maryam Abdullahi, who resides at Yakubu Wanka quarters in Bauchi who spoke to our reporter said that she was at the venue of the zakkat distribution exercise much earlier in the day after having information about the event”.
“At the venue, myself and few neighbour with whom we try together went for the zakkat, and at a point in time when almost half of male that qued on line got their individual share of the zakkat, and the female turn begun, when some youths who kept a distance from distribution point begun to hurl stones to the police that were there to maintain law and order to the exercise.
She said, “At this point, pandemonium broke out, and people were stampeded, a situation that made the police to use canniters to disperse the crowd, but the teargas apparently soffocated many persons, especially the women some of whom aged ones that instantly started falling down on ground”.
Maryam said, “I saw the dead bodies of six persons at the ground venue. One of the deceased woman had hundreds of thousands of naira on her body, but we’re carted away by some youths. I also saw an abandoned child at the zakkat distribution venue.
One Okada rider who identified himself as Abdulwahab Danladi, said that he came to the zakkat distribution point during the incident, only to be hired by a women whom I took to Bayara, and who while I was riding told me that she saw six dead bodies in the incident, and with her naked eyes saw a strangulated woman who forcibly gave birth to a child.
Another witness, Abbas Abdullahi, a resident Railway quarters in Bauchi metropolis said that he was one of the persons who loaded about five dead bodies into a dead body pick-up van ‘Motar Daukan Gawa belonging to Gwallaga Mosque, when it was called upon to the rescue.
However, an official of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital who preferred anonymity when contacted said that they received seven dead, six of whom already evacuated by their family members with one remaining as at time of filing this report.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the Bauchi State Police Command, SP Ahmed Mohammed Wakil when contacted confirmed the incident, saying investigations into the matter is ongoing.
SP Ahmed Mohammed Wakil however later told an interview with the Hausa service of the BBC that four persons reportedly died in the unfortunate incident, with one a 17-year-old Na’ima Abdullahi of Zango quarters receiving treatment at the time of this report.
SP Wakil then implored people to go about their normal businesses with the situation already brought under security control, while investigation is in good progress to unravel the circumstances that led to the incident.
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