6 Trampled To Death As They Scramble For Free Food In Zamfara

Date Posted: 16/07/2013

A stampede was said to have killed at least six people in front of a house belonging to a Gusau-based millionaire, Alhaji Shehu Danfulani Maidoya, early yesterday as they scramble for free food the millionaire gives out every year for the past 40 years as zakat during Ramadan.

Sources say hundreds of the villagers gathered in front of the businessman’s house waiting for the free food, some getting there as early as 5 a.m. until it became hard for those distributing the food items to control the crowd.

It was alleged that some of those scrambling to get a share of the food items succeeded in pulling down the main gate of the building thereby giving access to many others, leading to a stampede that killed six people.

The corpses of the six people had since been deposited at the Federal Medical Centre mortuary, Gusau.

Confirming the trampling to death of the six people, the state Police Commissioner, Mr Usman Gwary, said the police had dispersed the crowd, and normalcy had been restored at the scene.