Uke stampede: Obi didn’t tell the truth – Ngige

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The Senator Chris Ngige Campaign Organisation has said that the reaction of the Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter

Obi to the recent stampede at a worship centre in Uke, which left about 30 people dead was erroneous.
The Director General of the campaign

organization, Dr George Muoghalu on Monday in Awka refuted claims that the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Senator Chris Ngige, sabotaged the event.

Muoghalu criticised the attempt by the state government to shift the blame on Ngige’s supporters, describing it as “another cheap and desperate effort to cover up the heinous crime”.

According to him, “we see this as part of the orchestrated desperate campaigns to drag the reputation of the
candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Sen. Chris Ngige to the mud.

“The attention of the Ngige Campaign Organisation has been drawn to the press briefing by the Anambra State Governor Mr. Peter Obi and the National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Victor Umeh. Both men blamed the APGA midnight church campaign stampede at Uke that killed about 30 innocent people on Ngige’s supporters.

“Umeh further called for the arrest of Ngige. It is rather unfortunate that the State Governor and APGA factional National Chairman chose to play politics with such a national tragedy in which
they were both principal actors”.

Muoghau stressed that the place of the incident was purely a house of prayers “where traumatized Anambra people go to reconcile themselves with God and seek succor from pains”.
“But Gov. Obi and Umeh took their candidate in the state governorship election, Chief Willie Obiano with their entire campaign in full campaign uniforms to the prayer ground to campaign.

“Gov. Obi in his statement inadvertently admitted that the worshipers openly protested his attempt to turn the prayer meeting into a campaign rally. There is no doubt that it was the same protests by the congregants that eventually culminated in this avoidable deaths caused by stampede”, he said.

He said that the statement credited to the state government that the stampede was caused by
the supporters of Ngige should be disregarded and seen as “a tissue of lies”.

Muoghalu noted that the tragedy could have been avoided if the APGA campaign train did not visit the Adoration Ground.

“The Governor should not hold Senator Ngige responsible for his growing unpopularity and how the people choose to react to him whenever he appears in the public. The Adoration Ground will not be the first place that Governor Obi would be booed by the people of Anambra, neither will it be the last”, he added.

It could be recalled that the Archbishop of Onitsha Archdiocese, Dr Valerian Okeke had earlier dismissed insinuations that the visit of the governor or his security aides caused the stampede; rather he
attributed it to false alarm raised by unknown persons.

Meanwhile, the Anambra State Government believes that the false alarm that led to the stampede was raised by agents planted by the Ngige Campaign Organisation.

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