No answers to mystery
deaths in Abuja coy
From JOSHUA I. EGBODO,
Abuja
WHAT may have led to the death of three staff of Mikano
International Limited last Thursday and six others yet
hospitalized still remains a mystery to Abuja residents.
The affected staff of the company, a Lebanese owned power
generators’ merchant located along Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent in
Wuse II, Abuja were reported to have resumed work as usual that
fateful day, only for them to start experiencing dizziness, vomiting
and some dying instantly.
Two victims simply identified as Remi and Emma were said to have
died immediately after vomiting at the company’s premises while
Yellow died later at Gboko in Benue State where he had gone to work,
after reporting at the firm’s office in Abuja. He was said to have
slept and never woke up.
A staff of the company who spoke to our reporter under condition of
anonymity said he counted himself lucky as he had earlier been sent
out of town for a work which he did not finish in time to return
back to Abuja the day earlier. “Who knows, I might have died or be
hospitalized too,” he said.
According to our source, a call only came to him from his friends
not to return to the office yet as other available staffs were
rushed to the National Hospital and Zankeli in the Mabushi area of
the FCT when signs of what killed their colleagues were noticed on
them.
Those still hospitalized were simply identified as Ifeanyi, Victor,
Wale, Okoli, Pius and Yohanna who is still in an undisclosed
hospital in Kaduna where he had gone to work after reporting at the
Abuja office that same day.
Investigation by our reporter shows that there is yet to be any
official response to the incident as people in the neighborhood have
said the management of the company seems desperate to make sure the
incident is muffled and shielded from the public and the
authorities.
“Our thought was that the company should be closed down by the
authorities, but instead, we saw policemen brought by the Lebanese
managers to prevent access to the premises,” a worker in a hotel
near the company told our reporter yesterday.
Another respondent wondered why the parents of the deceased victims
were deceived into rushing the burial of their children without
investigating the cause of their death.
“Even if the cause is through chemical or gas emission in the
company premises as people are insinuating, how come only the
Nigerians were affected?” fumed the respondent who did not want his
name in print.
When our reporter visited the company premises yesterday, the gates
were under lock and key as workers were said to have deserted the
place since the incident on Thursday.
Efforts to reach the Director Inspectorate, Federal Ministry of
Labour and Productivity, Mr. Paul Okwulehie to obtain his comments
before going to press could not yield result as several calls to his
GSM number were not picked. |
