Falana also demanded justice for two students of the Nasarawa State University who lost their lives during a stampede at the venue of the distribution of palliatives for the students.
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has stated that the methods employed by states in the distribution of food palliatives were gross human rights abuse of Nigerians.
Describing the methods as "diversionary" Falana said it was not the best approach adding that the majority of the people would not get the palliative.
Falana spoke while speaking at the Citizens Accountability and Rights Forum, an event organised by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), in the Ikeja area of Lagos State on Thursday, PUNCH reports.
Faulting the method of gathering people in their thousands to share palliatives, the legal luminary said that it could not address the current economic reality as it was only a temporary measure to a long-term problem and a diversionary method from the reality of the economic situation.
“Distribution of food items is not the best approach because the majority of the people will not get it; it is a diversionary method. In Lagos, when Customs were selling 25kg of rice for N10,000, seven people were killed in a stampede," he regretted.
“Two weeks ago in Nasarawa, two students were killed in a stampede. In Bauchi State, seven people were killed during an alms-giving event.
“We are therefore taking advantage of this forum to appeal to governments in Nigeria to stop gathering our people and humiliating our people by throwing rice at them. By throwing food items at the people, we are dehumanising them and treating them like an animal.”
Falana noted that states should rather work on having a comprehensive social register that could be used to facilitate conditional cash transfer to residents of each state, thereby ensuring that all vulnerable persons get access to the government palliatives.
He bemoaned the inability of the government to have a robust crowd management system that can address the dangers of gathering large numbers of people at a particular place.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria said, “So let the government, federal and states, tidy up the social register and send money to vulnerable people to buy whatever rice they want to buy. But stop gathering people because we don’t know how to control the crowd.
“In each of the unfortunate situations, the government would always blame the citizens. There was no ambulance to cater for emergencies where over 20,000 persons were gathered. You can’t gather a large number of people like that and not provide an ambulance.”
Falana also demanded justice for two students of the Nasarawa State University who lost their lives during a stampede at the venue of the distribution of palliatives for the students.
“We are insisting that the government pay adequate compensation to the families of the bereaved. That was what the government did yesterday (Wednesday) to the families of the soldiers killed in Delta.
“President Tinubu personally attended and announced scholarships and honours for them and immediate payment of their gratuity. All Nigerians are equal, and every life matters. The government or whoever is responsible must take responsibility,” Falana said.