President Goodluck Jonathan Wednesday directed the nation’s security agencies to immediately start a special training of their personnel on proper crowd management, to avoid a re-occurrence of the tragedy that happened last Saturday in southern Port Harcourt, where 19 people were trampled to death and 29 injured during a presidential campaign rally.
Government spokesman Labaran Maku told journalists at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in the capital city of Abuja that President Jonathan has warned that such a tragedy must never be allowed to repeat itself.
The President’s directive follows a resolution of the Council, which described the deaths in Port Harcourt as tragic and a “sad ending in an otherwise exemplary show of support by the people of South South’ to the President.
A one-minute silence was observed in memory of the victims of the stampede.
The stampede is believed to have occurred when policemen fired shots into the air to prevent many who thronged the Liberation Stadium venue of the rally from leaving through a few of the gates that were open.