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Jonathan’s campaign woes continue as many die
in Port Harcourt stampede
Newsdiaryonline Sat Feb 12,2011
As at Sunday even the official figure had risen to ten including
nine women and a man.More than twenty were receiving treatments
for injuries sustained.
At least
four people were officially said
to have died on
Saturday
in a stampede at the Liberation Stadium in Port Harcourt. Unofficial
reports put the death toll between ten and twenty.
It occurred after President Goodluck Jonathan flagged off his
presidential campaign for the south south zone.The president
in a statement
Saturday
evening expressed sadness over the
incident.
The police authorities are also to conduct an Inquiry into the
incident with a view to ascertaining the cause of the stampede
and loss of lives.
The PortHarcour incident is the
latest in the string of woes trailing President Jonathan’s
presidential campaigns which have taken him to Nassarawa(North
Central),Bauchi(North East),Kaduna(North West),Enugu(South East)
and PortHarcourt(South South).
In at least three of the venues there have been reports of ugly
developments.In Nassarawa, there was an incident of reported
booing , rainof invectives and missiles at the presidential
convoy. This led to the arrest of CPC Governorship aspirant Al
Makura.This arrest led to further protests and shooting of at
least two people in Lafia ,Nassarawa state capital.
In Kaduna the crowd suddenly melted away leaving the president
to address a sparsely populated audience.The latest stampede in
PortHarcourt today
thus leaves observers with a sour taste in the mouth.
Despite all these political insiders close to the president
believe
the he
stands a better chance
of winning the election because of the advantage of incumbency.
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