Hon Kawuwa Damina, the speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly is a man with nine lives. He was among the Nigerians who traveled to Mecca for this year's pilgrimage and escaped the Hajj stampede that took over 1000 lives.

He was an hour shy of when the tragedy happened at Jamarat Complex which is a stone throw from Mina. The Mina stampede did not take place at the Jimarat – that is the place where pilgrims stone the devil. The stampede happened about 600 meters away from the Jimarat, he said.

Before the incident, he passed through that particular area where the stampede occurred just minutes before it happened and from what he observed, he had a premonition that something was going to go wrong. He even commented on it.

Surprisingly, it was not up to an hour after he had left the area that the incident happened. Where the stampede took place was a passage and there were shades left and right. There was also a fire service point and because of the heat, people just cool themselves with water on their foreheads and bodies as they walked on.