By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja
Kogi State government says no strange illness in Etteh in Olamaboro Local Government Area of its jurisdiction, said to have killed over 50 pesons.
The Commissioner for Health,Dr Audu Saka, cleared the air while refuting the story when he spoke with a TV station on Wednesday.
He, however, said the said deaths were recorded in the neighbouring Enugu state which shares boundary with kogi state.
The Commissioner,who faulted the lawmaker’s claims, urged that journalists be sent to Etteh community for on-the-spot assessment, to validate his stance.
“There is no death from any strange disease on our side of the divide.
“Etteh, a border community with Enugu State, is in Olamaboro Local Government of Kogi State.
“I have been in contact with Enugu Health Commissioner, who said samples have been taken (from the Enugu residents), while even NCDC had said the deaths (in Enugu) are from Yellow Fever.
“Also, a Rapid Response Team from Kogi Ministry of health has been to Etteh twice. No death was recorded.
“Also in 2018, there was a vaccination for everyone in Kogi State aged nine months and above. So such death as reported is not possible.
The Reporters recalls that a member representing Olamaboro Constituency in the Kogi State House of Assembly, Mr Ujah Anthony Alewo, had earlier disclosed that over 50 persons had lost their lives in Etteh community of Olamaboro Local Government Area of the state to a strange illness.
The lawmaker who made the disclosure in a motion of urgent public importance on the floor of the House on Tuesday, described the development as sad and quite disturbing.
He said that residents of the community had been thrown into confusion by the “outbreak of an epidemic alien to them.”
