{"id":1404,"date":"2022-06-15T23:54:53","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T23:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/dozens-killed-in-stampede-at-church-event-in-nigeria-al-jazeera-english\/"},"modified":"2022-06-15T23:54:53","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T23:54:53","slug":"dozens-killed-in-stampede-at-church-event-in-nigeria-al-jazeera-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=1404","title":{"rendered":"Dozens killed in stampede at church event in Nigeria &#8211; Al Jazeera English"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The stamped happened as hundreds of people gathered at the\u00a0annual \u2018Shop for Free\u2019 charity event in Rivers state, a police spokesperson said.<\/em><br \/>At least 31 people have been killed during a stampede at a church charity event in southern Nigeria\u2019s Port Harcourt city, according to the police.<br \/>Hundreds of people who had turned up to receive food at the event early on Saturday broke through a gate, causing the stampede, Grace Iringe-Koko, police spokesperson for Rivers state, of which Port Harcourt is the capital, said.<br \/>Many of the people queued from Friday to gain access to the Port Harcourt Polo Club \u2013 the venue of the annual \u201cShop for Free\u201d charity programme organised by the Kings Assembly pentecostal church.<br \/>\u201cPeople were there earlier and some got impatient and started rushing, which led to stampeding. The police are on the ground monitoring the situation while the investigation is ongoing,\u201d Iringe-Koko told Reuters.<br \/>The police spokesperson said seven others were injured but are \u201cresponding to treatment\u201d in the wake of the stampede at the event that organisers said was aimed to \u201coffer hope\u201d to the needy.<br \/>The police spokesperson said an investigation has been launched and a report would be released in due course.<br \/>Al Jazeera\u2019s Fidelis Mbah reporting from the Nigerian capital, Abuja said the death toll could rise.<br \/>\u201cWitnesses say the number could be higher than the official figure given by police. A similar incident also happened in December 2020 after a business organisation tried to give out donations to poor people in Port Harcourt,\u201d Mbah said.<br \/>\u201cAbout eight people were killed in that incident. The government has called for an investigation to find out whether adequate security measures were put in place to ensure such incidents do not happen again,\u201d he added.<br \/>Videos from the scene showed the clothing and shoes meant for the beneficiaries scattered on the ground. Doctors and emergency workers treated some of the injured as they lay in the open field.<br \/>The \u201cShop for Free\u201d event was suspended while authorities investigated how the stampede occurred.<br \/>Such events are common in Nigeria, Africa\u2019s largest economy, where more than 80 million people live in poverty, according to government statistics.<br \/>Nigeria has seen several stampede tragedies over food distribution in recent years, including an aid agency food programme in north Borno State where seven women were trampled to death last year.<br \/>Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2022\/5\/28\/deadly-stampede-at-a-church-in-nigeria\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The stamped happened as hundreds of people gathered at the\u00a0annual \u2018Shop for Free\u2019 charity event in Rivers state, a police spokesperson said.At least 31 people have been killed during a stampede at a church charity event in southern Nigeria\u2019s Port Harcourt city, according to the police.Hundreds of people who had turned up to receive food [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.5 (Yoast SEO v25.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dozens killed in stampede at church event in Nigeria - Al Jazeera English - City Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=1404\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dozens killed in stampede at church event in Nigeria - Al Jazeera English City Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dozens killed in stampede at church event in Nigeria - Al Jazeera English City Watch %\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=1404\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/web.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100083282987806\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-15T23:54:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/wp-header-logo-132.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"562\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=1404#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/?p=1404\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Editor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citywatch.ng\/#\/schema\/person\/6f3e02bc6483df72f5abc6e9624d0cc8\"},\"headline\":\"Dozens killed in stampede at church event in Nigeria &#8211; 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