The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) announced on Monday the suspension of the sale of foodstuffs after a tragic stampede claimed seven lives at the NCS Old Zonal Headquarters in Lagos State on Friday. Abdullahi Maiwada, the Chief Superintendent of Customs and National Public Relations Officer for the Comptroller General of Customs, disclosed the suspension in a statement, citing the need to investigate the incident.<\/p>\n
The NCS had initiated the sale of seized food items at N10,000 per 25kg to alleviate economic hardships. However, the stampede occurred when suspected hoodlums attempted to force their way into the Yaba Customs office compound, resulting in the death of a pregnant woman and six others.<\/p>\n
Despite the suspension, disappointed Lagos residents queued at the NCS office in Yaba on Monday, expressing grievances over the sudden halt. The crowd persisted despite officers’ efforts to convey the unavailability of stock.<\/p>\n
Our correspondent gathered firsthand accounts of people’s frustrations, with one individual stating, “I have been here since 8 am. They said there would be no rice again. I have not eaten anything since this morning. Help us to tell the President that we are hungry.” Another woman, Adesola Odefunso, pleaded for the distribution of available rice to those waiting since early morning.<\/p>\n
In response to the tragic incident, the NCS issued a statement in the evening, expressing regret for the suspension and acknowledging the unforeseen challenges during the food item disposal. The NCS spokesman explained that the smooth start of the exercise turned chaotic when stock ran out, leading to a stampede as people sought rice bags inside emptied containers. The Customs extended heartfelt condolences to the victims’ families and pledged to work with health authorities to support the affected families in their next steps. The suspension of the exercise will remain in place until a thorough investigation is conducted into the events of February 23, 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) announced on Monday the suspension of the sale of foodstuffs after a tragic stampede claimed seven lives at the NCS Old Zonal Headquarters in Lagos State on Friday. Abdullahi Maiwada, the Chief Superintendent of Customs and National Public Relations Officer for the Comptroller General of Customs, disclosed the suspension in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":20995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20991"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20996,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20991\/revisions\/20996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}