{A stampede at an all-night church vigil disrupted by politicking over a contentious gubernatorial election has killed 24 people and injured 17 in Nigeria’s southeast Anambra state, the Red Cross and government officials said Sunday.}<\/p>\n
The stampede occurred before dawn Saturday at an All Saints’ Day open-air vigil organized by St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in the town of Uke, according to the deputy inspector general of police, Emmanuel Kachi Udeoji.<\/p>\n
Dr. Peter Katchy of the local Red Cross chapter said they had a mobile clinic and small emergency station posted at the grounds because more than 100,000 people had gathered for very popular healing sessions by a local priest.<\/p>\n
“There was a stampede, everybody said they heard someone crying ‘Fire! Fire!’ and in that stampeding some people were suffocated: 24 persons died there, five males, 19 females,” Katchy told The Associated Press. He said another 17 casualties were hospitalized.<\/p>\n
Katchy blamed “an over-large crowd and lack of crowd control.”<\/p>\n
Newspaper and TV reports blamed politicking for the Nov. 18 elections.<\/p>\n
They quoted witnesses as saying the false warning of a fire was made to try to end a speech being made by Gov. Peter Obi, who attended the crusade and was booed as he tried to promote his gubernatorial candidate.<\/p>\n
Obi said he left long before the stampede. “I did notice something unusual,” he told reporters in comments broadcast on Channels Television. “When I wanted to speak, a group of people started shouting somebody’s name. I had to curtail them and say we are here to worship. … At the time I left everything was normal, there was no incident.”<\/p>\n
The name being shouted was that of a rival for the governorship, Sen. Chris Ngige, witnesses said on the TV.<\/p>\n
Some said Obi’s bodyguards charged into the part of the crowd from which the catcalls had ensued, causing the stampede when someone shouted there were armed men attacking them.<\/p>\n
Other witnesses said the way out was blocked by protesters chanting slogans against Obi and in support of Ngige.<\/p>\n
Udeoji, the police officer, said he could not understand how a stampede occurred when the vigil was out in the open, “there are no restraints here, there are no fences, nothing,” he said on the TV, promising a full investigation.<\/p>\n
AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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