Hajj stampede: Nigerians’ death toll rises to 145 … Yet to account for 165–NAHCON

THE death toll of Nigerians, who died in the September 24 Mina stampede near Makkah, was yesterday put at 145.

Last Thursday when the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), gave an update on the inci­dent, it put the figure at 99, while it said 214 Nigerians were still missing at the time.

But by Sunday evening it said of 345 Nigerians, who were affected in the stampede, 145 had been certified, dead, 35 injured, while 165, were yet to be accounted for.

It also revealed that sev­en Nigerians were still re­sponding to treatment in the hospital, in Makkah.

These were disclosed by the Commissioner, in charge of Planning, Re­search, Statistics, Informa­tion and Library Service (PRSILS) of the commis­sion, Dr. Saleh Okenwa, while speaking at a joint press conference of the top management of the com­mission, and the Chargé d’Affaires Nigerian Em­bassy in Riyadh, Ambas­sador Tijjani Hammanjoda, and the Nigerian Consul General to Saudi Arabia, Ambassador Ahmed Umar.

He emphasised that those declared missing “cannot be declared dead, since their corpses have not been identified and there are on­going efforts to locate them or identify their remains among the dead.”

Also speaking, Chair­man, Medical Commit­tee of the commission, Dr. Ibrahim Kana, said autopsy were being carried out on some of the corpses to as­certain the cause of their deaths and that some of the families of those that died had received the death cer­tificates of their relations.

Sun