Vice-President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Issa Aremu has called on the National Human Rights Commission to investigate the deaths in a stampede in Ilorin last week.

It was gathered that the people died while struggling for Sallah gifts at the residence of late Dr. Olusola Saraki.

Aremu said the incident should not be swept under the carpet.

Aremu in a statement in Ilorin at the weekend he described the incident as unacceptable and criminal, saying, "The Ilorin deaths have introduced a dangerous dimension to violence in Nigerian politics. When "accidents" become addictive as they were in Ilorin, they become rituals that must be condemned, investigated and stopped once and for all".

He called on government to provide jobs and income generating ventures for the poor instead of assembling them annually in the name of distributing Sallah gifts.

"The poor do not need charity and gifts paid for with public funds. What the people need is work and income generating employment initiated by governments at all levels," he said.

He added: "The reported deaths of people, mostly women in another stampede at a Sallah rally at the house of Senator Bukola Saraki of Kwara State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ilorin on Wednesday were massacres getting too addictive, inhuman and unacceptable. This latest tragedy and human wastage should not be swept under the official carpet of the ruling party in the state. On the contrary, the organizers of these periodic murders in the name of charity must be identified and prosecuted for negligence and murder by the Kwara State government. Similar mass deaths occurred in 2010 and 2011 at the Mandate office of the PDP in Ilorin under the pretext of an alleged stampede while people were ostensibly collecting gifts at Sallah".