Numerous trainees reportedly collapsed on Tuesday, May 27, throughout the Kid’s Day celebration held at the Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City, Edo State, after supposedly inhaling tear gas fired by a yet-to-be-identified security operative.
The affected students were right away hurried to the Edo Specialist Hospital for medical attention, while panic spread across the stadium as trainees, teachers, and parents scrambled for security.
According to eyewitness accounts, the event began when some male trainees going to the event apparently made advances towards female students from another school. The circumstance supposedly brought in the attention of bouncers stationed at the place, who stepped in and reprimanded the male trainees.
However, the reprimanded trainees were stated to have regrouped and challenged the bouncers, leading to a disruption within the crowded arena.
A parent who experienced the occurrence claimed that a person of the security workers, while trying to control the scenario, fired a tear gas canister into an area largely inhabited by trainees. The resulting exposure supposedly caused several trainees to faint after inhaling the compound.
The chaos that followed required many attendees to flee the location in panic, with several trainees– especially female students– supposedly sustaining injuries while doing so.
Responding to the development, the Edo State Federal government dismissed what it described as “spectacular analyses, spins, twists, and misinformation” surrounding the occurrence.
In a declaration issued late Tuesday night, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Monday Okpebholo, Dr. Patrick Ebojele, stated efforts were being made to portray the federal government negatively.
The federal government associated the incident mostly to the massive turnout of trainees at the stadium and ensured the general public that the circumstance had been brought under control.