Tragedy struck at Ngwo town in Enugu state following the death of a mother of three, Mrs Chinelo Okeke, who died as a result of suspected food poisoning.

It was learnt that Mrs Okeke who is a lecturer in one of the private universities and also a businesswoman in Enugu became unconscious alongside her husband, sister-in-law and daughter after eating Cassava granules (Garri) and Okro soup but Mrs Okeke died before help could get to them while the other three family members are receiving treatment at Parklane hospital Enugu.

Checks further revealed that the husband bought the food home on Saturday night to eat together with his family but his two older kids refused to eat with them as they ate only biscuits but Mrs Okeke, her husband and sister in-law as well as their younger daughter who ate the food became unconscious and started throwing up.

One of Mrs Okeke’s neighbour, Chidinma Igwe, said the unfortunate incident occurred on Saturday night but the family could not get any help until Sunday evening because no one was aware and as a result, Mrs Okeke died in the house before being taken to the hospital

“I was home on Sunday evening when I heard people shouting in the neighbourhood and when I rushed to their house, we saw four of them lying down and the whole house was messed up and smelling as a result of their vomit.

“We quickly rushed them to Parklane hospital, where the doctors were able to revive the husband, the sister-in-law and the daughter but Chinelo was already dead,” she said..

She described Chinelo’s death as an unfortunate incident wondering what would have gone wrong or who might have poisoned the food they ate, “do they want to wipe away the whole family? Chinelo is a peaceful and hardworking woman so she doesn’t deserve such sudden death”.

“Mr Okeke is currently at Emergency centre of Parklane hospital where he is receiving treatment. He told us that he bought the food from a food vendor and could not remember what happened saying the only thing he could remember was that they ate the food that night and he finds himself on the hospital bed

“We have reported the case to the police So the next line of action is to visit where he bought the food and know what actually happened because we are yet to hear of the news of other people dying as a result of food poisoning from any food vendor since Saturday, so we need to know if this family was targeted and they sold poisoned food to them or it was done somewhere else,” she said

Also, Mrs Okeke’s colleague, Joseph Uchenna described her death as a painful death which is still difficult to believe.

“I can’t believe Mrs Okeke is dead, we were together on Friday. She later left around 4 pm to go and pick up her kids in school only for me to receive the news of her death on Monday morning, this is sad and devastating.

One of the deceased business partners, Mrs Maria Nnaji said she attended her last public event on Saturday evening before her death on Sunday, saying “we attended a business seminar together with her on Saturday in Enugu.

“I was shocked when I received the news of her death on Monday because I saw her during our business seminar on Saturday and she was full of life, does it means she came to show herself for the last time? This is unbelievable

“She was such a good and hardworking woman, always minding her business and living in peace with everyone, we will surely miss her. We pray God will strengthen and comfort her family,” she said

All efforts to get the Spokesman of Enugu State Police Command, DSP Daniel Ndukwe to confirm the incident proved abortive as he did not reply a text message sent to his phone as of the time of filing this report. (Daily Independent)

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