A Port Harcourt resident who claimed he was at Polo Club, when the stampede occurred on Saturday, has denied reports making the rounds that 31 lives were lost in the incident.
The eyewitness who spoke to our correspondent yesterday, said he was shocked when he heard that 31 persons lost their lives in the incident.
According to him, after the incident he counted the death toll, and they were not up to 15.
He said children lost their lives in the incident, and that many went missing as well.
The eyewitness, a student of one of the tertiary institutions in Rivers State, noted that the crowd was massive, as those on ground could not control it.
He blamed the bouncers for the incident.
According to him, the stampede occured after attendees wanted to enter through the small gate at once.
This was after security personnel locked the main entrance to the club and only opened the small gate.
He said the despite the mammoth crowd, the incident would have been averted if the main gates to the club were opened.
He called on the religious organization to take crowd management seriously, adding that a lot of people are hungry, and are looking for such opportunities.
Meanwhile, the church had commiserated with families of those that lost loved ones.
The State Government and the Police had also commiserated with those affected and promised to investigate the cause of the incident.
