The purported injection of a dead cow with poison by herdsmen which allegedly left about 13 indigenes of Amaekpu Ohafia in Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State has been described as a hoax.

The lawmaker representing Ohafia South in Abia State House of Assembly, the Transition Committee Chairman of the Council and some indigenes of the area, in separate interviews, denied the rumours that some persons from Amaekpu Ohafia have died from strange illness which killed them after eat a cow meat which was injected with poison by herdsmen.

The issue has been trending on social media, with ma y commenting that cow meat should banned in the South East.

The member representing Ohafia South State Constituency in the Abia State legislature, Hon Francis Uchendu, denied that there was any outbreak of epidemic which claimed 13 lives last week in Amaekpu Ohafia, while reacting to a social media report that the victims felt sick after consuming beef from a cow suspected to have been poisoned by Fulani herdsmen.

Similarly, the caretaker committee Chairman of Ohafia Local Government Council, Chief Sampson Anaga, expressed dismay over the report, describing it as a figment of imagination of the author.

Anaga revealed that on hearing the report, he directed both the Police and the Health and Environmental Department of the council to investigate the matter which proved negative.

He said he went the extra mile to personally contact hospitals, health centres, transport unions, traditional rulers and community leaders in the area on the matter and none confirmed the report.

The council, he added, had been wondering why the author or those behind the report chose to use a part of his council for the unfounded report “in view of the current security challenges in the country.”

Meanwhile, investigations at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Umuahia, where an autopsy was reported to have been carried out on the victims indicated that there was no such autopsy.

A senior medical personnel, who pleaded not to be mentioned in print denied the report and blamed it on miscreants bent on creating chaos and tension in the Ohafia and Abia State.

•Photo shows Abia Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.

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