6 trampled to death in scramble for Ramadan largesse

Six people were reported to have died in a stampede that broke out in
front of a house belonging to a Gusau-based millionaire, Alhaji Shehu
Danfulani Maidoya, early yesterday.
Vanguardgathered that in line with the spirit of Ramadan, the
businessman had made it a point duty to assist the poor in the past 40
years.
According to the sources, this time around Maidoya planned to
distribute some food items as usual, hence making hundreds of the
villagers to gather in front of his house.
Hundreds of people were said to have trooped to his house as early as
5 a.m making it difficult for those assigned to distribute the food
items to control the crowd.
It was alleged that some of those scrambling to get a share of the
food items succeeded in pulling down the main gate of the building
thereby giving access to many others.
Vanguardlearnt that as a result of the development, stampede ensued,
leading to the trampling of six people to death.
At press time, the corpses of the six people had been deposited at
the Federal Medical Centre mortuary, Gusau.
The state Police Commissioner, Mr Usman Gwary, confirmed the death
ofthe six people, adding that normalcy had been restored at the scene
as, according to him, the police had dispersed the crowd.