On 23 February, 2023, the Nigeria Customs Service embarked on the distribution of 25kg bags of rice to indigent Nigerian citizens in the Lagos Area at its Zonal Headquarters in Yaba, Lagos State. The exercise was marred by a stampede which claimed the lives of seven persons. The tragic incident led to the imediate suspension of the food disposal initiative by the Nigeria Customs Service. 

It is sad to note that the authorities of the Nigeria Customs Service have not deemed it fit to identify the bereaved families of the deceased and commiserate with them. As a matter the deceased persons have been blamed for their "impatience". According to the spokesperson for the Customs, Mr. Abdullahi Maiwada, “At a point, they decided to be impatient. When we saw the crowd, we even suspended the collection of forms and said, ‘Let’s give them free’. We did that, we exhausted everything. After exhausting everything and we told them everything had finished, and that they could go, that we didn’t have any more, they persisted. Some of them broke the fence of that place. We had to put some barricades to cover the area. Some of them went and entered the container."

Since it is common knowledge that similar distribution of food items to poor people had recorded stampede in the recent past, the authorities of the Nigeria Customs Service must accept full responsibility for the blatant negligence that led to the avoidable death of the seven citizens. Since a bag of rice was selling for N77,000 at the material time, it ought to have occurred to the Nigeria Customs Service that its Zonal Headquarters in Yaba would not be able to contain the crowd that had been invited to purchase a 25kg bag of rice at N10,000.

Therefore, the authorities of the Nigeria Customs Service should take urgent steps to identify the bereaved families of the seven deceased citizens with a view to paying them adequate monetary compensation. However, if our advice is ignored by the authorities, we shall not hesitate to approach the Federal High Court to enforce the fundamental right of each of the deceased persons to life as guaranteed by section 33 of the Nigerian Constitution and article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights. 

Furthermore, the Nigeria Customs Service should lift the suspension of the distribution of the remaining bags of rice without any further delay. To avoid another stampede, the distribution should be carried out through the appropriate local government councils and local government development areas in Lagos State and other States of the Federation. 

Femi Falana SAN,

The Chair, 

Alliance on Surviving Covid 19 and Beyond (ASCAB)