Remember Thisday newspaper reported that people refused to hear Goodluck Jonathan give his speech and immediately walked out of the campaign venue in Kaduna after party flags were presented to PDP governors?
Remember Thisday newspaper reported that people refused to hear Goodluck Jonathan give his speech and immediately walked out of the campaign venue in Kaduna after party flags were presented to PDP governors?
That’s what would have happened in Portharcourt but the mobile police attached to the president wouldn’t allow that.
Thus, immediately Amaechi was presented with the flag and they see people leaving, the mobile police attached to the president closed the big gate of the stadium. The crowd surged forward, a woman fell, more people fell and our brainy police men stationed by the gate started shooting (apparently to scare people away from the gate).
I’m not making this up. It’s exactly the statement released by Rivers State Government said. When SaharaReporters.com said the same thing yesterday, some readers accused it of being sponsored because, they said “SR didn’t name any source”. Okay, here’s a source - Ibim Semenitari, Rivers State’s commissioner of information and following is exactly what she told journalists.
“It is important to give you the correct information on what happened yesterday (Saturday). Of course you (journalists) are all aware that there was a presidential rally and it was quite exciting as people turned out in their numbers to witness the event. As soon as governors finished receiving their flags, and the president was about to make his speech, some of the people, who had come to celebrate with the president and their governors began to leave. Initially, the gates were opened, that is at the Liberation stadium. But people were leaving in an uncoordinated manner, and security personnel were trying to manage the crowd and in the process of managing the crowd, they shut the bigger gate.
“Then a woman fell down and the crowd started stepping on her, some other people fell subsequently, and more people were stepping on them, that was how the confusion started. Now, when that happened, the mobile police men, who were standing outside, shot into the air to scare others. They (MOPOL) released a shot into the air to stop further surge and rescue those on the ground. Unfortunately, that worsened the confusion and more people started pushing, rushing back, rushing forward, leading to more casualties,” Mrs Ibim Semenitari, Rivers Commissioner for Information and Communication said.
That’s not all.
When Jonathan was booed and heckled in Nasarawa State the police killed two babies (six years each) to appease Mr. President. “Here Mr. P, we killed two children for you – a boy and a girl no less - are you happy?”
Dayyabu Usman was shot in the head and Fatima Nasir in her chest. Another boy, Hamza Ibrahim, who was bit older, was also killed with them. Dayyabu Usman’s brother said the six-year old boy was on an errand for the family when our dear mindless police put a bullet in his brain.
By the way, do the Nigerian police know something called a rubber bullet? I don’t even see them with batons any longer. Are they beyond using batons?
However, the Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Olusola Amore, said the [Very Insightful] IGP has requested useful information on the immediate and remote cause of the mishap. Nonsense!
Here’s the remote cause of the avoidable deaths: police close the big gates to prevent people from leaving the stadium.
And here’s the immediate cause: police fired their guns.
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Finally, Mr. P who must have realized by now that death follows him wherever he goes has suspended his campaign activities. But trust Nigerians with their automaton heads; when the campaign activities resume, more will gleefully surge forward to their deaths.
In case you didn’t know, Ibraheem Dooba is the warped mind behind AgainstJonathan.com and can be reached at [email protected]
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