KOGI: 6 MORE PEOPLE HOSPITALISED OVER AMALA MEAL

More revelations emerged on Wednesday over the death of six people that took yam flour meal in Ogaminana, Kogi state as six other people were hospitalised after the meal.

This is coming as the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has condemned the ethnic slant being given to the incident that claimed the lives of a woman, her three sons and two of their neighbours.

Top police source in Adavi Divisional headquarters in Okene told Nigerian Tribune that three of those hospitalised had been referred to the Federal Medical Center (FMC), Lokoja on the order of the state governor.

He said the remaining three had been discharged after they were satisfied to be healthy.

Apart from this, the state commissioner for health, Dr Saka Haruna, was said to have taken the samples of the yam flour for laboratory analysis to ascertain its composition.

However, the governor has appealed for calm in the wake of the development, saying it would be wrong to blame ethnic cleansing for the death of the  six citizens of the state.

Bello in statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Petra Onyegbule, regretted that the incident had been given an ethnic slant with some people claiming the victims who happen to belong to the same tribe, were deliberately targeted.

The governor berated such conclusions, saying the appropriate authorities were investigating the matter, and that no one should preempt the outcome of the investigations.

He said, “No one knowingly takes poisoned foodstuffs to the open market in a multi-ethnic society, hoping only people from a particular tribe will buy.

“That’s like throwing a stone in a crowded market, and foolishly hoping it will strike your one enemy. It just does not make sense.”

In addition to the ongoing police investigation, Bello said health officials were also carrying out their investigation because of the public health angle to the incident, saying nothing will be left to chance.

The governor vowed to come down hard on people with negative tribal agenda in the state, warning that their activities go against his plans of fostering good communal relations in the state, and making Kogi a home for all