January 10 was a day many guests at the wedding reception of the foster daughter of President Goodluck Jonathan, Inebharapu Paul, will not forget in a hurry.
Not only because the President’s daughter got married that day, but because they got more than they bargained for at the International Conference Centre (ICC) venue of the reception.
Some of them, who were clutching their invitation cards as they approached the gate filled with a mammoth crowd, got injured in the series of stampedes that ensued.
Others lost valuable items like mobile telephone sets, handbags, shoes, wristwatches, earrings and head-ties.
Some of the guests lost consciousness when policemen at the gate shot tear-gas into the air as the crowd was surging forward and attempting to force the gate open.
While some of those who lost consciousness were revived in the ambulance stationed at the venue, demand for sachet water, popularly called ‘pure water’ rose immediately as the guests scrambled for it to wash their faces in order to reduce the effect of the tear-gas.
Villa correspondent for The Punch newspaper, Olalekan Adetayo, had is own dose of the fracas as he narrowly escaped sustaining serious injuries from the stampede.
Adetayo, like other Villa correspondents, who were there to cover the reception after covering the church wedding, were stuck with the crowd.
Just like many of the guests with invitation cards who could not gain entrance to the reception ceremony where the Senate President, Senator David Mark, was said to have made some remarks, many Villa correspondents could not enter the venue with their Villa tags.
Some of the State Security Service (SSS) men, who knew that the journalists were there to do their jobs, tried to lead some of them, including Adetayo, through the crowd.
Midway to the gate, there was a stampede. They were caught in the middle of deadly pushing from front, back and sideways. The journalists would not have made the attempt if they knew it will nearly cost them their lives.
When the crowd at the back moved backwards and the stampede subsided, one samaritan had to pour ‘pure water’ on Adetayo’s head and face to help him regain himself.
Undeterred, many of the guests and gate-crashers who gathered at the ICC gate as early as noon, most of whom from the wedding held at the National Christian Centre, were not tired of pushing forward for about three hours in an attempt to gain entrance.
Many of them were seen holding handkerchiefs over their noses after the policemen resorted to tear-gas in order to manage the mammoth crowd.
To ensure that no fatal incident was recorded at the venue, one of the soldiers standing by one of the military vans stationed by the ICC gate after sometime had to push his way through the crowd to the gate and told the policemen to stop shooting the tear-gas.
The soldiers also apprehended a guy among the crowd caught stealing somebody’s mobile telephone. He was asked to kneel down by the van. So much was happening at the same time and I could not wait by the van to know how the issue was resolved at the end of the day.
Around 3pm when the crowd had reduced, since a great number of them had gone back to their houses and hotel rooms, the soldiers asked the remaining crowd to stay in two straight lines with their invitation cards.
After the crowd was pushed backwards from the gate, a message filtered in that the hall was filled up and no guest should be admitted anymore.
That was how the latest orderly arrangement was truncated. But some of those who remained on the queue were served cans of malt drinks. Some got bottled water.
In a chat, some of the guests, who had attended the wedding of another Jonathan’s daughter, Faith Sakwe in April, 2014 at the same venue, apart from kicking against the use of tear-gas on the guests at Inebharapu’s wedding reception on Saturday, maintained that no proper arrangement was made for guests to access the reception venue.
According to them, not only was it easy for them to access the reception ceremony of the wedding in April, but giant canopies were stationed then at the ICC car parks to accommodate those who could not enter the oversubscribed hall.
Giving reasons for the mammoth crowd at the gate and the rowdiness, one of the security personnel, speaking in confidence, said that most of the guests were not supposed to attend the reception.
Even though they had the wedding invitation cards, she said that some heads of the various women groups, who thronged the reception venue, had been settled to make arrangements for entertaining their groups after the church wedding at the National Christian Centre.
But some women wearing red head-ties at the reception gate said; “We are not aware of such arrangement. All we know is that they brought this head-tie and invitation card to us yesterday night and the el-Rufai bus brought us here.”
Gym excites Villa
staff, families
Life, last Wednesday, was brought back to the multi-million naira State House Gym.
The gym, which was almost abandoned by many staff and their families for about five months due to problems of electricity disconnection and poor water supply, has started experiencing high usage.
Knowing the importance of the facilities to the health of Villa staff, the December 16 edition of this page titled ‘Challenges of keeping fit at the Villa’ was dedicated to drawing attention to the problems following complaints from some staff.
But from last Wednesday, I have received several calls from some staff appreciating the reconnection of electricity supply to the gym by the management.
According to them, electricity was restored around 5 p.m. on Wednesday shortly after the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Nebolisa Emordi, led a top management team to inspect the facility.
Since then, they said that many staff or registered members of their families have started trooping to the gym to shed their excess weight and keep fit.
One of the staff who uses the facility, on condition of anonymity, said: “I was just driving by the gym around 4.30 p.m. on Wednesday and I saw some technicians working on the electricity transformer by the gym fence.”
“By the time I was driving back around 5 p.m., I could see light on inside the gym. Since then, I have seen many staff in track suits visiting the gym.”
Another staff said: “A friend called to inform me about the electricity reconnection. I went there to see things for myself the following day and I met some people burning calories on the treadmills and other machines.”
“It’s a very long time I saw people turn out on weekdays in large numbers at the gym like this. This is really nice because it is not wise to allow these expensive machines to be wasting when they can be used to boost the health and fitness of staff,” he added
