Renowned human rights activist Femi Falana has mourned the tragic deaths of Nasarawa State University students, describing it as “official negligence.”
In a statement on Sunday, Falana called for an immediate investigation into the stampede at the palliative distribution venue that killed two students; Grace Danladi and Rose Micheal.
“It is a clear case of official negligence that has led to this tragic incident,” Falana stated,
The initiative by the state governor Abdullahi Sule to provide two 7.5 kg bags of rice and N5,000 to each student turned catastrophic last Friday as the crowd management failure resulted in a stampede.
Falana criticised Vice-Chancellor Prof Suleiman Bala for attributing the tragedy to the impatience of the victims instead of acknowledging the university’s lack of preparedness.
“It is regrettable that the university authorities failed to learn from the recent stampede that claimed seven lives during a rice distribution event by the Nigeria Customs Service in Lagos. This tragedy could have been avoided if the university had distributed the 7 kg rice bags through the students’ departments.Â
“The culprits must be swiftly prosecuted. Given the acknowledgement of hoodlum involvement in the distribution exercise, it is imperative that the state government and university administration compensate the families of the deceased students,” Falana insisted, calling for justice and accountability for the preventable tragedy.
