Ibadan Stampede: NANS faults detention of Naomi, others

National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, yesterday, faulted the arraignment and remand in prison of a philanthropist and former queen of the Ooni of Ife, Naomi Silekunola, and others, over the death of 35 children in a funfair stampede, last week in Ibadan.

The association said that though the tragic event was unfortunate, the former queen should not be punished for her philanthropic gestures which she has been doing over the years.

Silekunola is one of three persons brought before the Iyaganku Magistrate Court in Ibadan in connection with a terrible funfair stampede that killed 35 children last week.

However, the student body in a statement by the Clerk of the Senate, NANS National headquarters, Abdul-Yekinn Odunayo, described the detention of the philanthropist as wrong and unnecessary.

Odunayo argued that rather than making the former queen of Ife a scapegoat for her kind gesture, the government, especially at the federal level, should find solutions to the hunger that has permeated the core of the country.

According to him, if the government had addressed the parlous economic situation which had exacerbated hunger, such a fatal stampede would have been avoided.

He said records had clearly shown that Naomi had organised numerous outreach programmes over the past decade to assist the needy, elderly, children, and pregnant women across Nigeria without incident, insisting that ugly incident in Ibadan was due to the widespread poverty in the land.

The statement reads: “Rather than holding Naomi and others solely responsible for the unfortunate deaths of children in Ibadan, the government should by now realize that hunger is real in the country. The government is vicariously liable as it has failed to revamp the economy and address poverty.

“Similar deaths in the FCT and Anambra have shown that our government has failed in its duty to ensure availability of food to Nigerians. Or was it Naomi that organized the event in other locations? Why has the government not brought the organizers in the FCT and Anambra State to the book?

“NANS hereby calls for the release of the former Queen of Ife and others; their continued detention will no doubt discourage others from philanthropy. We view the step taken by the Oyo State government as a volte face and subterfuge for the government’s failure to address the issue of poverty and hunger pummeling Nigerians.”