More information are emerging about the over 30 people who died in a stampede during an event organised by King’s Assembly Pentecostal Church in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Saturday.

The church’s ‘Shop for free’ charity event, a special programme where attendees from all over the state receive free food and gifts, would have been the fourth of its kind and was initially scheduled to hold at the church premises.

However, due to the projection that there would be a mammoth crowd at this year’s event, the church authorities opted to host the attendees at the Polo Club in Port Harcourt.

What the church did not see coming, though, was that the hired venue would not sufficiently house the attendees.

The oversight eventually led to a stampede, which in turn resulted in the many deaths that were recorded at the venue.

Among the victims of this tragedy was a mother and her 10-year-old son.

Favour Francis, one of the surviving children of the victim, spoke with FIJ on Monday. The 300 level Rivers State University student, who also attended the event, revealed the circumstances that led to the stampede.

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BIRTHDAY ON FRIDAY, SHOP FOR FREE ON SATURDAY

“Friday was my mother’s birthday. I came back from school to celebrate with her and accompany her to this programme she told me about. It was not the first time she would be attending the programme. She attended last year’s edition as well,” Favour said. 

“We arrived at the venue around 5 am on Saturday morning. When we got there, we met a massive crowd. I doubted if we could get in and even asked my mum if we still would be able to enter the venue.”

Favour said her mother assured her that the crowd was the same last year.

When they eventually made their way in, Favour said the hosts decided to lock up the gates and keep a large crowd outside. 

“There were only two people controlling the crowd, but people refused to follow instructions. They kept telling us to ‘go back’ but a woman responded ‘go back to where?’. The crowd pressed forward even those who wished to leave could not go back against the crowd. Imagine only two people controlling a crowd of over 600 people,” she said.

“People kept pushing before the hosts opened the gate. My mum also complained about the pushing. I told her that we should try to leave but she did not listen to me. There were two gates and I wonder why the organisers did not try to divert the large crowd. They eventually made the mistake of opening the gate as people pushed against each other.” 

Favour and most of the people sandwiched in the multitude were eventually forcefully driven forward with the crowd. 

“It felt like there was a barrier. I was tilting forward but could not fall down because I was resting on someone else. All this while people continued to push us from behind. There was no way to go back,” she said. 

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THE BABY STOPPED CRYING

As the crowd charged forward, people struggled to hold on to anything they could grab, including other people.

According to Favour, what followed were people’s painful cries, shouts, grunts, and more cries. 

“There was a woman beside me who was carrying a baby and holding another child. Immediately the pushing started, she was wailing ‘my baby, my baby, my baby,'” she said.

“As the mother was shouting the baby was crying. The cries of the baby rang in my ear. At one point the baby stopped crying. I could no longer tell whether she was still alive or whether she was dead.

“It became something else entirely. One woman was praying and shouting ‘blood of Jesus’. It was so chaotic.”

THOUGHTLESS INTERVENTIONS DID NOT HELP MATTERS

Favour told FIJ that there were little interventions which made no difference to the dangers the crowd faced. 

“A woman and others poured some water on the crowd. It was very uncomfortable, we told them to stop but they didn’t. I got the same feeling I had under a shower of so much water. The water made me feel like I was drowning,” she said.

“The police then started to shoot in the air and the crowd went mad.” 

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A  frenzy of fearful people trapped in a tight crowd was the final ingredient in this recipe for disaster. Favour told FIJ that people became more desperate to get out of the crowd despite the intervention by the police and some other people. 

“From nowhere, somebody leapt and stepped on my head and the heads of a few others,” Favour said. 

Favour confirmed that other people from the crowd followed suit and in the end, many people’s heads were trampled upon. 

LIMBS IN AWKWARD POSITIONS, SWOLLEN FACE

Favour later managed to wriggle herself out of the stampede and resorted to looking for her mother and younger brother. The organisers had locked the gate again, leaving a growing crowd outside the gate. 

“I tried to look through the gate to see if my mom was outside but I couldn’t see. My short height prevented me from seeing everyone on the other side of the gate. I eventually walked past my mother without recognising her. It was when I stopped to look in her direction a second time that I realised it was her I had passed by. She had become unrecognisable because her face was now very swollen. I was eventually able to spot her because of the clothes she wore,” Favour said.

Favour said she called for help but could not get any immediate assistance. She also said she tried all she could to resuscitate her mother until two neighbours joined her. 

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Favour said there was little she could do because medical personnel were not available at the ground. She also said one of the men who was controlling the crowd dismissed her calls for help.

“Is your mother the only person here? the man said to me,” Favour said. 

“At this point, My mom’s hands, legs and limbs were in awkward positions. All around me, people were just on the floor, women and children. We sat my mom and tried to revive her. I quickly went around to look for my brother but I could not find him.” 

LATE ARRIVAL OF DOCTORS, NO AMBULANCES

Favour and many other people waited for another 30 minutes before the paramedics arrived. 

There were no ambulances available. A few people had to volunteer to carry the casualties in their cars. 

“I had to drag two of those doctors in mufti to check my mother. They checked her pulse three times and told me that she had a faint pulse. Three men helped me to carry her into someone’s car. There were no ambulances, it was someone who volunteered to take us to the Military Hospital,” Favour said.

“Inside the car, there was a woman with a child, she said the child was her only child. This mother kept begging her daughter to wake up till we got to the hospital. We got to the hospital and met no doctors to attend to us. I kept asking where the doctors were.” 

A doctor eventually came along, checked Favour’s mother’s pulse, and simply shook his head.

The first doctor left without telling Favour the condition of her mother. Two others came by to check her and after a while, one of them told her that ‘dis one don pack up’. 

It was a few minutes after Favour came to the realisation that her mother had died that she saw her brother’s body. 

“I saw my brother lying with two other bodies inside a car. So, I rushed to him. As soon as I saw him I knew he was dead. He was cold, he was already looking white. His hands were closed and his teeth jammed. I still called a doctor to confirm his condition,” Favour told FIJ. 

“A student doctor eventually came and confirmed my brother dead. I was hurt and barefoot, looking like a mad woman. They asked us to drive to a field because more cars with more bodies came. I laid my brother’s body beside my mom’s body, sat down and waited for the friends and family members I had called to come around.”

KING’S ASSEMBLY‘S STATEMENT

In an official statement signed by Chiemeka Elem, King’s Assembly’s director of administration, the church said it did not anticipate the crowd.

“The King’s Assembly is deeply saddened by the stampede incident,” the statement read in part.

“This year’s turnout, buildup and the attendant circumstances were absolutely unanticipated. The crowd converged overnight long before the security teams for the event took formation.

“We are reviewing our public safety protocol and advance crowd management procedures to persistently ensure that our events are safe.

“In the meantime the church is rapidly tracing and engaging the affected families while we encourage our members and friends to hold up the affected families in prayers.”