10-Year-Old Boy, Eight Others Die After Cassava Meal

Two persons died yesterday after consuming poisonous cassava flour at Ogaminana in Adavi Local Government Area of Kogi State. Earlier, seven people, including a mother, three of her children and three of their neighbours, had on Tuesday lost their lives in the same area, after eating cassava flour meal (white amala).

The Acting Chief Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Lokoja, Dr. Olatunde Alabi, who confirmed the death yesterday, said three victims, two adult and a child, were rushed to the hospital on Wednesday morning.

He said two of the three had died while the other was still unconscious at the intensive care unit. According to him, the dead woman was in her early 30s, the boy was 10 while the one at the intensive care was 13. Alabi said the deceased might have consumed the poisonous cassava flour with suspected cyanide.

He noted that a blood sample of the victims had already been taken for a toxicology test in South Africa, with the assistance of the state government. The woman, who died with her children, was said to have brought the cassava flour from her farmland at Ohuepe village of about 30 minutes’ drive from Ogaminana on October 30.

The woman, according to the Public Relations Officer of Adavi Local Government Area, Mr. Abdulhamid Salahudeen, prepared a dinner from the yam flour for herself and other members of the family. She also offered the food to her neighbours. Salahudeen said the victims later went to bed but developed severe stomach pains which later resulted in the death of the woman and two of her children.