In what has become almost a yearly
occurrence for the past three years at least, a
yet to be known number of Peoples’
Democratic Party, PDP, faithful in Kwara State
have lost their lives during a scramble to
receive handouts from the immediate past
governor of the state, Senator Bukola Saraki.

While PREMIUM TIMES quoted a source as
saying no fewer than a dozen people were
feared dead on Wednesday night’s
stampede, the state chapter of PDP
regrettably announced the death of only four
of its members.

Several others were also left with varying
degree of injuries in the incident which
occurred at a venue popularly called PDP
Charity House, which is near Mr. Saraki’s
Ilorin residence.

It was learnt that the peaceful and cheery gathering soon turned into a rowdy affair as
indigent party members tried to outdo one
another as Mr. Saraki, who currently
represents Kwara Central in the Senate and
other philanthropists distributed the yearly
Sallah gifts.

The dead and the injured were packed into
ambulances and taken to nearby hospitals.
In a statement on Wednesday night, the
Publicity Secretary of Kwara PDP, Mas’ud
Adebimpe, confirmed the incident and
expressed the party’s condolence to families
of the victims.

Mr. Adebimpe said, “The Peoples Democratic
Party Kwara State chapter held its annual
Sallah celebration at PDP Charity House
where many party faithful were in
attendance.

“The event which is an annual activity of the
party went on smoothly until the unfortunate
incident of a stampede, which led to some
people fainting. They were immediately
rushed to a hospital few blocks away from the
venue.

“While some are currently responding
positively to treatment, we however regret to
announce that we lost four of our party
members to the unfortunate development.

“Our prayers go out to the families of the
deceased and we pray for the quick recovery
of those that are responding fast to
treatment.”

It would be recalled that in May 2007, during
the yearly sallah gifts distribution by the
Sarakis at the Mandate House, Ilorin, several
persons lost their lives as they scrambled for
rice and other items.

The same episode repeated itself in
November 2010 when no fewer than 11
others died, but incidentally, only four deaths
were confirmed by the Kwara government at
the time.

Source :-www.updatesnaija.com/at-least-four-confirmed-dead-inilorin-as-pdp-members-scramblefor-sarakis-sallah-largesse/