Members of the Ilorin Emirate Elders of Thought have called for the prosecution of the Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Dr. Bukola Saraki, over the recent stampede in his family house at Ilofa, Ilorin, Kwara State.

Many people died, while scores were also injured during the stampede when sallah gifts were being distributed.

The group, in a letter by its lawyer, Mr. Muritala Sambo, to the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Kwara State, which was made available to journalists in Ilorin on Thursday, demanded an immediate commencement of criminal trial of Saraki who was a former governor of the state.

It said such loss of human lives had been recorded in the past during events organised by Saraki.

Sambo said, "We have the instructions of our clients to demand the immediate commencement of criminal trial of Sen. Bukola Saraki over the avoidable gruesome murder of over 50 of our client's kinsmen on Wednesday October 17, 2013, at the private residence of the senator along Ilofa Road in Ilorin.

"Our clients are alarmed, as thousands of other public spirited Nigerians, by the cruelty and (alleged) raw insensitivity of Saraki and  his cronies in the Peoples Democratic Party to the victims of the avoidable stampede that occurred at the 'Charity House' along Ilofa Road in Ilorin.

"They are therefore, by virtue of their pre-eminence in the community, interested in the prosecution of such a criminal suspect(s) for murder, conspiracy to murder, manslaughter and grievous bodily injury (as the case may be) with the hope that such a decisive action will deter a recurrence of such in the future."

Meanwhile, a leader of the All Progressives Congress in Kwara State, Chief Francis Okafor, has appealed to the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Zulu-Gambari, to stop Kwara people, especially women, from going to Saraki's house to beg for food and money.

He wondered why people should queue at Saraki's residence waiting for food and money, saying such practice should be discouraged.

He canvassed for the empowerment of the people to prevent them from debasing themselves or turning themselves to beggars.

"It is not only in Kwara that there is poverty. This kind of thing cannot happen in many other states. How many Hausas are assembling in people's houses to beg for money, cloth or food? This is the second time that people are dying in Saraki's house and government is not doing anything to address that issue,"he said.