Campaign tragedy: Jonathan shelves rallies

Posted by admin Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Presidency, Top Stories Sunday, February 13th, 2011

Amid commiserations over the tragedy that occurred at his campaign rally in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, President Goodluck Jonathan has put planned campaign rallies in some states on hold.

Special Adviser to Jonathan on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ima Niboro, on Sunday, announced the postponement of the presidential campaign, citing the need to show respect to the victims of the Port Harcourt tragedy as the reason for the action.

Niboro said that the rallies scheduled for Monday (today) in both Borno and Yobe states had been postponed. No new date has been announced.

The statement reads, “President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has put off tomorrow’s inauguration of the Presidential Campaign in the states. Tomorrow’s event was originally scheduled to hold in Borno and Yobe states.

“This cancellation is to honour the victims of Saturday’s tragic stampede during the campaign in Port Harcourt. Additionally, there will be no campaign on Tuesday, in honour of Eid-el-Malud, the birth of Prophet Muhammad.”

The Rivers State Government on Sunday said 11 of the victims of the stampede at the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt, at the inauguration of the President’s campaign in the South-South, had been confirmed dead while 15 out of the injured admitted on Saturday were still in hospital.

The state, according to the Commissioner of Information and communication, Mrs. Ibim Seminatari, will pay the medical bills of the victims admitted at Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital and Teme Clinic in Port Harcourt.

Seminatari who addressed the media said Governor Rotimi Amaechi had toured the hospitals where the victims were receiving treatment. She said the report of the investigation into the incident would be made public.

Already, the President had ordered a detailed investigation into the cause of the tragedy with conflicting claims on the circumstances that led to the incident.

Following the presidential order, the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, has asked for information on the possible cause of the stampede in which the people died.

Ringim directed members of the public to submit the information they have to the head of the investigation team he had put together to probe the Port Harcourt tragedy. The IG team is headed by the Assisstant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 6, Mohammed Abubakar.

Meanwhile, the presidential rally tragedy continued to generate reactions on Sunday with former President Olusegun Obasanjo; former Vice- President, Atiku Abubakar; Senate President, David Mark; Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi; and Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, condoling with the families of the victims of the tragedy.

Obasanjo who spoke at a church program on Sunday in Abeokuta, Ogun State, described the incident as unfortunate and asked God to give the families of the victims the fortitude to bear the loss.

While asking the congregation at the 2nd anniversary celebration of the Chapel of Christ the Glorious King to observe a minute silence for the victims, Obasanjo said, “I got back from Minna, where I had gone to campaign for the Chief Servant only to receive the tragic news of the stampede at Port Harcourt.

“I had tried to get to the President to send my condolence on the incident. Whether they are our members or spectators, we feel for them in this period of grief.”

Atiku described the deaths at the rally as “exceptional tragedy” and asked that a thorough investigation be conducted to determine the remote and immediate causes of the incident.

The former vice-president and defeated presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, in a statement by his media office in Abuja, asked the party and the government not to desert the bereaved families of the victims whom he described as “heroes of democracy.”

Mark, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary on Sunday, expressed grief over the incident and said that only free and fair elections in April could immortalise the victims.

“We are resolutely committed to free, fair and acceptable elections in April. We must not deviate from this path. That is the only way we can immortalise the death of our party members, so that their death would not be in vain,” he said.

The Senate President, however, called for decorum and discipline in the conduct of the PDP campaigns, especially during rallies, in order to avoid a recurrence of the Port-Harcourt saga.

Fashola condoled with the president, Rivers State Governor and families of the victims.

The Lagos governor, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Hakeem Bello, described as very unfortunate the stampede at the presidential campaign venue.

He said the kind of campaign envisaged in the present dispensation was a carnival-like rally where ideas could be freely canvassed.

He said, “It is to the benefit of all of us that we guarantee peaceful electioneering campaigns where those who aspire to lead us would have the opportunity to tell us how they intend to do so. Our people must resist the temptation to resort to violence in any circumstance.

“The time has come when our campaign rallies should be a market place of ideas where both those aspiring to lead and the electorates can exchange useful ideas and make valuable contributions to the development of our country. At the end of such rallies everyone should be able to return home safely. Nothing can be achieved in an environment of chaos and confusion.”

The Ribadu Presidential Campaign Organisation on Sunday described the deaths at the presidential campaign rally as am “avoidable and tragic loss.”

The organisation, in a statement by its Director of Media and Communications, Ibrahim Modibbo, condoled with the family of the deceased.

“We join the people of Rivers State to mourn the loss of those who died at the PDP campaign rally in Port-Harcourt. We urge the members of the family, and friends of the deceased to take heart while we pray that God helps them overcome their sorrow,” it said.

The organisation however asked all political parties to ensure adequate security measures at their rallies and programmes.

It said, “It is not enough for a party like the PDP to mourn when things like this happen. It is not enough for the President to be calling for enquiries when the calamity could have been prevented.

“For twelve years, the PDP has been in charge of our nation’s security. Yet, our policemen are poorly trained and equipped to manage a crowd not to talk of protecting the lives and property of the citizenry.”

Meanwhile, the African Renaissance Party has blamed the Nigeria Police for the stampede that led to the deaths at the Port Harcourt Liberation Stadium.

The ARP insisted that the police did not manage the crowd that streamed into the Liberation Stadium for the PDP political rally well.

ARP’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Jackson Omenazu, who spoke with THE PUNCH on the telephone on Sunday, explained that since five states were involved in such rally, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police and the police commissioners in the zone should have been able to work out plans towards controlling the crowd.

While the stadium has the capacity to play host to 100,000 people, the figure at the presidential rally had been put at about 250,000 with delegates coming, especially, from the South-South states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Cross River.wp_posts