Over 35 children killed in Nigerian amusement park stampede

On Wednesday, police in southwest Nigeria said that a crowd crush at a funfair killed at least 35 kids and nearly killed six others.

A spokesperson for the Oyo state police said Thursday that eight people had been arrested for their claimed role in what happened at the Islamic school in the city of Ibadan.
According to the police, one of the detainees is the primary supporter of the event.

Local radio station Agidigbo FM said that the event’s organisers, the Women in Need of Guidance and Support (WING), thought that 5,000 kids under 13 would attend the free event and have a chance to win prizes, like college scholarships.

The president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, sent his condolences through his spokesperson, according to the state news service NAN News.

“During this sad time, President Tinubu stands with the families who have been affected and prays that God will give peace to the souls of those who have died in this terrible accident,” the statement said.

According to NAN, the president also instructed the Oyo State Government to take the necessary steps to prevent another tragedy similar to this one.

Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State said it was “a very sad day.”

“Our hearts go out to the parents whose happiness has turned to sadness because of these deaths,” Makinde wrote on Facebook.

“I want to reassure our people that everyone who had anything to do with this disaster will be held responsible.” Please stay calm while the police and security services look into what happened.

The state’s criminal investigation department’s homicide division has received the case, according to the police.

The Oyo State Police Command expressed sympathy for the families and loved ones who were touched by the tragedy and promised the people of the state that justice would be done.

Nigeria is a country in West Africa with more than 236 million people. In the past few years, there have been several dangerous crowd crushes.

They said in February that an unknown number of people were crushed to death during a crowd surge while waiting for cheap rice at their office in Lagos, which is the country’s biggest city.

In 2022, a crowd crush at a church event in Port Harcourt, a city in southeast Nigeria, killed 30 people. Many of the dead were children.

According to CNN, the country’s president hosted a political gathering in 2019 where a crush claimed the lives of at least four people.