R. Kelly rocks Abuja

International R&B act R. Kelly Saturday night thrilled music lovers in the Federal Capital Territory as he dished out his famous tracks to the fun-starved Abuja audience who came out in their thousands to witness his performance.

The American pop artiste, who also performed alongside Nigerian acts notably MI, Tuface Idibia, Terry G, Asa, among others, rendered a scintillating performance that elicited wild chants from the mammoth crowd of fans at the Old Parade, Ground, Area 10, Garki, Abuja, venue of this year's Star Mega Jam music fiesta.

The Abuja show was a continuation of the annual music fiesta that started in Lagos two days ago with a similar performance at the Lagos Polo Ground organised by Nigerian Breweries Plc, brewers of Star Lager Beer.

Security men at the venue of the event had a tough time trying to contain the surging crowd which eventually overwhelmed them.

R. Kelly also showed love to his fans by dishing out gift items and repeating songs demanded by thousands of his female fans which sent them into frenzy.

But 10 persons were feared dead and 20 others injured during a stampede at the Old Parade Ground, Area 10, Garki, Abuja, venue of the show.

The stampede was said to have started at about 11.15pm when loud noises that sounded like explosions were heard at the venue of the annual music fiesta five times.

Going by recent bomb explosions in the nation's capital, some of the victims who were mainly youths concluded that it was another bomb explosion and ran helter-skelter, while others standing on the podiums and other makeshift constructions began falling on one another.

Some of the victims who spoke with THISDAY gave different versions of the incident.While some said the noises sounded like gun shots, others thought the sounds were those of firecrackers popularly referred to as "knockout".

"We heard a loud sound and we started running and I remember that I ran into something and the next time I found myself in the hospital. My friends took me to the hospital," a victim of the stampede told THISDAY.

A member staff of the Garki General Hospital, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in the absence of the Chief Medical Director of the institution, confirmed that many injured young men and women were brought to the hospital Saturday night but could not tell if there was any loss of life.

"There were many of them who were brought here yesterday, both young men and females, some with head injuries. There were more that 20 of them but I am not aware of their conditions now," the source said.Most of the victims, it was gathered, were treated for varying degrees of injury.Spokesman of the Federal Capital Police Command, Moshood Jimoh, said there had been no formal report lodged with the police in connection with the incident.

"The incident was not reported to us. We do not have any formal report lodged before us of such a thing. If people were injured or killed, nobody has reported to us. I do not have any information on that," he said.

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