•UNN vet team steps up investigation
From KASSIDY UCHENDU, Nsukka
The casualty figure in the Enugu meat poisoning tragedy has increased with the death of a pregnant guest at the ill-fated funeral ceremony. The deceased is said to hail from Nze autonomous community in Udi Local Government Area, Enugu State even as a team of medical experts from the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Faculty of Veterinary Science has begun investigation into the alleged poisoned meat. It would be recalled that Sunday Sun reported that some guests who attended a funeral ceremony hosted by a widow at Elu Onicha Ama-Egbu Village, Ede-Oballa community in Nsukka LGA, Enugu State died after eating pork meat suspected to be poisoned.
Our correspondent who accompanied the UNN team of experts probing the source of the alleged poisoning to Elu Onicha Ama-Egbu Ede-Oballa community reports that the experts took blood sample and feaces of the only pig at the pen of the pig farmer who allegedly sold the controversial dead pig. Meanwhile, one of the victims of the poisoning admitted at the Shepherd Hospital, Nsukka Urban is in critical condition and hospital authorities are said to be contemplating transferring him to another hospital. According to a hospital source, victims of the alleged meat poisoning were defecating and vomiting blood when they were brought to the hospital and only one of them who was brought in late died at the hospital.
Mrs. Caroline Akweka, the widow who hosted the memorial ceremony in remembrance of her late husband, John, who died in 2002, told Sunday Sun at her home in Ama-Egbu that she bought the controversial pig at N13,000 and had shared it with another widow, Mrs. Asogwa Uchechukwu, who was also cerebrating the funeral ceremony of her late husband. According to the embattled widow, whose son Emeka, is now cooling off in police cell at Enugu in her stead, none of her children and even herself had any problem after partaking of the alleged poisoned pork meat.
Eze Ifeanyi, the seller of the controversial “dead pig” is being detained by the police but his elder brother, Ephraim told Sunday Sun that the pig had developed rashes all over its body and was treated by a female health worker with multi-vitamin drug before it died. Ephraim further claimed that he partook of the alleged poisoned meat with his other siblings but nothing happened to them. He however defended his brother saying that the female health worker did not instruct him to bury the animal on the event of its death as claimed by the health worker.
The pig farmer, Ifeanyi Eze, Emeka Akweka, son of the widow , who organized the ceremonies and another widow, Asogwa Uchechukwu are in police custody while the female health worker is said to be on the run. Ede-Oballa community reacting through its traditional ruler, Engr. Chris Asogwa, condemned the action of the pig farmer, Mr. Eze “for deliberately selling poisoned dead pig to the funeral celebrants”. “Ede-Oballa is a peace loving community.
We don’t make trouble. What the young man did was out of wickedness because we were told that the girl who treated the pig told him to bury the pig if it died within 21 days”. He commended the efforts of the UNN Vet team for stepping up an investigation into the source of the poisoning that has led to the deaths of some people and brought hardship to many, adding that their findings would be of immense benefit to humanity.” Leader of the UNN Vet team, Dr. J.A. Nwanta said the investigation was part of their commitment to their host community .
“When we got the news of what happened, as part of our mandate, our dean mandated us to go and investigate and find out what happened and collaborate with our medical colleagues”. He declined further comments until the investigation is concluded. A young research fellow, Dr. Uchendu Goodhead who catalyzed the faculty’s action said he was impressed by the prompt response of the Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
Wat a tragedy!
May God continue to help heal those who ate poisoned pok meat in Ede-oballa.
this only happend b/cos of the love of money.
#13,000 was the reason why people life where put astake.
Igbo man no want to lost his money.
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How come the widow and her family are not affect? Is it that they didn’t eat from it? something is missing here.
i gues d source of d meat poison was not frm d dead pig.the victim dat died are selective not evrybody dat ate it died,two widows shared d meat,no death recorded on the other widow remembrance party
I don’t think the poison is from d dead pig becos if u tel me dat d poison is 4rm d dead pig why d two widows didn’t hav a dead in their own family.wat i’m saying is dat d two widows knows wat happen to d people not d seller of d pig.
A funny scenario indeed.
Nke bu eziokwu . http://www.radiobiafralondononline.com
Something is wrong somewhere, why is it that the second widow did not record any cassualty or death.
I dnt think its was d meat but what was used 2prepare the meat.
I wnder y pple are so wicked in dis country, in d verge of making money dey tend 2 do any tin nt minding weather pple will die or nt, imagine wat dat selfish act has cost those people, d owner of dat farm shld be made 2 face the law
Y will someone buy a dead animal 4 consumption esp when u can’t give account of its death.d widow and her family can’t be affected bcos they can’t eat it knowing is a dead pig.God help us .
God help us!!!
I am sorry 4 igbo man bcos of money.
I did not know that this incident will happen before I wrote an article on the poor standard of meat hygiene and the reasons most farmers do not cooperate with Vet. inspectors. I think the Government will learn from this and know that the health of the nation will be at risk if we do not do things rights in term of meat inspection/standard. I asked in the article ‘How long will God continue to be a Nigerian”
It is a pity! Unfortunate!
Their deaths was not as a result of the dead pig,it is something else
That widow is wicked. How can she prepare a dead pig meat for people? She and her family did not eat thats why they not affected.
May God help people who always look for cheap things.
In this matter wat i notice is dat d two culprits are d widows.only them know what is in d mind for rememberance celebratiön of d death of their husbands d same day.
Government should reward those investigation team for not taking bribe as black cloth people
I happen to be one of the UNN researcher investigating the said outbreak at Ede-oballa. This investigation is exposing a lot of things but one thing I can say is that we (Nigerian’s) need a fresh re-orientation on the best use of animal protein. The government and research institutes needs to come together in this fight
@favor: y ‘re absolutely right, the family of the widow didn’t eat the meat. So, shld we conclude this to be a premeditated act? ‘after buying a dead pig to serve the public.’ This is shear wickedness! God help us.
Poverty,Poverty,Poverty is the issue,poor widows who cannot afford the extra cost of funerals for their beloved dead husbands.
May God help us .
From a professional point of view, the scanty history available in this report is enough to rule out the pork as the cause of the unfortunate deaths. If at all the pork was involved, contamination in the course of handling is a more likely consideration. The simple reason in that two or probably three groups of people consumed pork from the same pig in question and only one group was affected. One really wonders what the veterinarians from UNN expect to find in the blood and faeces of an in contact pig that is still hale and hearty especially when furnished with the history available in this report.
Baba God deyooooo