Ten members of the same family have been reported dead as a result of suspected food poisoning at Jangeme village in Gusau Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
An uncle of the deceased persons, Bashiru Muhammad Jangeme, at Yariman Bakura Specialists Hospital Gusau, said that 10 of the victims died one after the other as a result of the food they ate.
According to him, the elder sister of the deceased persons, Aisha, cooked a food item with a powder suspected to be hair shampoo instead of potassium, which is normally used in cooking a Hausa food known as “Tuwon Dawa” (swallow), which immediately led to the death of nine out of the 10 members of the family, who ate from the poisonous food.
“The victims’ elder sister, Aisha, a divorcee, cooked the food when their mother was away,” Bashiru said, adding that the 10th person, Abba, initially received medical attention at the specialist Hospital in Gusau before giving up the ghost on Saturday.
The victims were brought to the hospital last Monday after one of the children (Buhari) became the sixth child to die, while four others died after being admitted at the hospital. Among the names of the victims listed by Bashiru were Hafsat, Amira, Arabi, Abubakar, Babangida and Buhari.
Confirming the incident, the Public Relations Officer, Yariman Bakura Specialist Hospital, Mr Auwal Usman Ruwan Dorowa, said that doctors at the hospital con- firmed that the food the victims ate was responsible for their death.
