Former presidential aide, Reno Omokri has described the death of some female undergraduates of the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, in a stampede over palliatives distribution as “one too many”.
Omokri said this in a Facebook post.
The Head of Information of the school, Abraham Habu, disclosed on Friday that two students of the school died and 23 were hospitalised.
He told Channels Television that the school authorities on Friday set Friday for the commencement of distribution of palliatives received from the Nasarawa State Government to the students to cushion the effect of the economic hardship.
Habu said that some students overpowered the security on the convocation ground where the distribution was billed to take place, causing a stampede that resulted in the death and injuries of the students while they carted away the food items.
In February, seven persons died in Lagos during a palliatives distribution exercise.
Reacting, Omokri said, “My condolences to the families of those Nigerians who lost loved ones during the stampede for palliatives in various states of the federation. The most recent incident involving female undergraduates of the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, is one too many.
“There has to be a better way to give palliatives to our people than getting Nigerians to gather in large numbers, which could lead to death by stampede or suffocation.
“People have phones. The right thing to do would be to get Nigerians to register on a first-come, first-served basis for the limited number of palliatives. When their palliative is ready, they get a barcoded text alert with a time and an address for pick up. Send the texts in such a way that no more than a few hundred people turn up. Have security so they are orderly and queue up. Then, they scan the barcode in the text and take their palliatives. That is the purpose of science. To use technology to help help humanity as well as save lives.”
Omokri recalled that former President Goodluck Jonathan sent fertilisers to over three million Nigerian farmers via the e-wallet system.
“To help this administration and our various state governments, I am attaching a photo of one of the actual texts we sent to farmers on how and when to get their fertilisers.
“Not one Nigerian died from a stampede when we gave out millions of bags of fertilisers. And this was our secret,” he said.
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