The All Progressives Congress, APC, has said Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State should be held responsible for the stampede at a vigil in Uke, Idemili North Local Government Area, which left over 30 people dead.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said had Governor Obi and the candidate he is seeking to impose on the people of the state, Willie Obiano, not gone to the praying ground to engage in wrongful politicking, the innocent souls who died at the vigil would be alive today.
It said while there is nothing wrong in a state governor going to a vigil, such visit should not be impromptu in order for the organisers to make the necessary security arrangements, and it should also not be a license to engage in political campaign.
APC condemned the plan by the governor to set up a panel to investigate the stampede, considering that he (Obi) is at the centre of the tragedy.
The party said: "Setting up a panel to investigate the cause of the stampede will amount to seeking to be a judge in your own case. The only cause of the stampede is the governor's ill-advised visit to the vigil. Information at our disposal has it that the stampede was triggered by the governor's overzealous security details who manhandled congregants as their principal was exiting the venue of the vigil. The security details were said to have been irked by the murmurs of disapproval that greeted the governor's attempt to campaign for his candidate, Obiano.
"It is therefore disingenuous for the governor's spin doctors to be shifting the blame on the supporters of our candidate, Senator Chris Ngige. The simple truth is that there would have been no stampede if Governor Obi had not come to the vigil or, even if he had come, had not attempted to politicise the gathering that was meant strictly for prayers."
The party added that Obi should now take a cue from the disapproval that is trailing his desperate bid to impose a candidate on the state by ending all activities that can put the lives of the people of Anambra at risk, as the candidacy of Obiano is not worth the blood and tears of the people.
"We recall that an angry protest also greeted the attempt by the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, campaign train, with Obiano in tow, to shut markets in Onitsha last month. The protests effectively short-circuited the APGA campaign. Had the governor and his entourage learnt their lessons from the Onitsha debacle, they would not have needlessly endangered the lives of the same people whose votes they are desperately but undeservedly seeking," the party said.