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From Magnus Eze, Enugu
The mood in Abor community in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State now is anything but pleasant. The entire community has been in mourning mood since January 19, following the death of four of its sons and daughters and they would be buried on Friday, April 14.
On that fateful morning in January, the people woke up to the terribly devastating news of the death of Peter Okolongwu from Amebo Amukwu Village.
Okolongwu, 58, an events planner, died and the next day his 50-year-old wife, Petronilla Okolongwu (nee Ozougwu), followed suit in similar circumstances as shown by clinical manifestations. The woman was allegedly reported to have died of “toxic syndrome.”
Sadly, Okolongwu’s niece, Divine-Favour, 15, and the man’s 13-year-old nephew, David, who returned for Christmas holiday, and were staying with the couple, also died, all days apart. Divine-Favour and David gave up the ghost on January 20 and 26, respectively.
Their remains would be interred after a funeral mass at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Abor, in Udi LGA on April 14. Tears would flow uncontrollably over these mysterious deaths. Staffers of the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), where Petronilla worked, have continued to weep over her demise.
President-general of the Abor community, Ozor Bonaventure, told Daily Sun that such strange deaths had never occurred in their area before. The tragedy was unusual, especially as the people never manifested any form of sickness before they died hours apart.
To ascertain the root cause of these mysterious deaths in order to forestall a recurrence, the matter was reported to the police station at the Ninth Mile Corner by some family members and a corona’s inquest was ordered.
They also alerted some relevant government health authorities, this was as speculations on the possible cause of deaths, including toxic ingestion, were rife.
Our correspondent learnt that there were preliminary prognosis and conclusions by the hospitals and doctors that attended to the couple before they passed on. But the deceased children were not taken to the hospital.
For many reasons, it is believed that these strange and mysterious deaths happening in one family house within hours and days apart was a matter of serious public concern and interest and needed to be officially in the public space.
The community’s president-general and elder brother of the deceased man, Virginus Okolongwu, said that results of the autopsies conducted on the couple and one of the children were still being expected.
According to him, preliminary tests and investigations done on their bodies did not show that they encountered any strange poisonous substance.
Virginus said that the family has been in unimaginable pain and distress since the calamity befell them.
“It has not been easy for us at all; we’ve just been managing. The financial demand has been heavy but we’ve been getting support from different sources,” the distraught man said.
President-general of Abor said that the community was not leaving the burden for the Okolongwus alone to carry. Ozor Bonaventure disclosed that their people would stop at nothing in unravelling the cause of these deaths.
Explaining that the report from the various health agencies and bodies doused the fears that pervaded the community revealed that spiritual and traditional means were already deployed in trying to get to the root of the matter.
He also said that the community was praying fervently that this kind of affliction would not happen again in the area.
“The community was really worried and devastated after the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control came and took specimens and even checked those that came in contact with them and everything was negative, it doused our fears. So, nobody is now afraid of epidemics or something like that because we were thinking that it was some form of epidemic.
“But the disease control people have said that their result is negative, unless it’s a spiritual thing. You know, in this kind of thing, there will be all manner of rumours and stories. The people that believe in tradition are there searching for the cause; people are going spiritual; people are going religious to see if they would find anything. Yet, we haven’t had this kind of thing in our community before, never. Our prayer is that kind of thing should never happen again,” the community leader said.
