Family Of Seven Die In Benin City Due To Suspected Food Poisoning
Tragedy struck in the ancient city of Benin, Edo State capital, as seven members of a family died after a meal in what is believed to be a case of food poisoning.
The incident, which occurred at No 40, Otete Street, off Textile Mill Road, Ogida quarters, in Egor Local Government Area of the state, threw the entire neighbourhood into mourning.
The house was deserted for fear that there might be mass arrest with a few sympathisers seen outside the compound.
A neighbour of the victims, one Mrs Christy Igbinadolor told newsmen that she did not know that anything was amiss until a man came to ask her about the whereabouts of her neighbours and she advised the inquirer to go to the house and knock at their door.
“This morning, when I woke up, I sat outside and I saw one man who came to ask me where are these people (the victims) and I replied him that I am just waking up from sleep”, Igbinadolor said.
“I told him that I just sat down here reading my Bible. I said I have not seen them this morning. The only thing I saw was that when I woke up last night there was light in their house, but when I woke up this morning, there was no light again.
“So, from there, the man went to the compound and knocked at their door. And I asked what happened he said it was their senior brother in Port Harcourt that called him and that he should come down and find out what was going on,” she added.
According to her, “I told him that when there is no response, the only thing he should do is to go to the police station and report. So, the man went to the police station and when he came back, he came with some policemen and some members of the man’s church. So they broke the door and found out that some of them have died. So, they carried them to the hospital.”
She added that when the father of the deceased was called, he came to find his children lying on the floor.
“They dragged about five of them out. Some of them have babies because one of the man’s daughters came with her children. The man’s children were grown up and they were the ones staying in the house while two of the man’s children were staying with the man’s late wife but they decided to come and mourn their mother here in Benin when this incident happened”, she said further.
Mrs Rachel Anyanwu, another sympathiser, explained that the father had some five days earlier lost his wife, adding that those who had been rushed to the hospital were the man’s children and relatives who came to empathise with him over the loss of his wife.
According to Anyanwu, all efforts to resuscitate one of the children were abortive and they had to rush all of them to the hospital.