No fewer than 38 persons have died in strange
circumstances in Saburi 1, a slum settlement in the Dei-Dei axis of the Abuja
Municipal Area Council (AMAC) of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Fear has gripped the
area, once again, following the reported death of a 14-year old girl identified
as Mariam Mustapha last weekend in similar circumstance.
When Daily
Sun visited the place
yesterday, there was still apprehension in the air.
The people were,
particularly, worried that the cause of the death had not been made public.
Those who spoke to Daily
Sun gave sketchy
details of the calamity. They said victims would complain of headache or fever
and possibly take medication from the patent medicine dealers, and the next
you will hear is that they have died.
When this newspaper visited
one of the private clinics there to seek the opinion of the medical personnel
on the strange deaths, since there is no public healthcare facility in the area,
a nurse, Ms Salome Maikalfi, who would not want the name of the medical
facility mentioned, said the deaths were not ordinary.
Though none of the victims
was brought to their hospital, she said the issue was more spiritual than
medical.
“What we hear is that
somebody will complain of headache; they will go to a local drug dealer and buy
medicine. None of them went to the hospital, but, before you knew it, the
person would die within two days.
“Most of the victims
were said to have complained of seeing strange light rays or objects they could
not describe in the night before dying,” she said.
However, the story making
the rounds in the community was that the gods were not happy because the chief
allegedly sold their grave yard to people to build residential houses.
Another resident, Blessing
Sunday, who operates a food kiosk said they were still waiting for the outcome
of the visit of the FCTA officials “who came and even tested the water in the
area.
“They came here two
times in February, and, till now no result. We didn’t hear anything from
anybody. I can’t tell whether anybody cares about us again; you can see that
the population of the community has reduced, many people have left, those of us
remaining are in fear of what will happen next,” she said.
When Daily Sun visited
the palace of the Dankaci Saburi 1, Alhaji Muhammad Yamwawo, he spoke through
an interpreter and confirmed that the community recently recorded multiple
deaths, but refused to comment on the allegation of sale of burial ground.
He, however, appealed
to government to site a primary healthcare centre in the community, saying
they have had to make do with private clinics or go as far as Kubwa for medical
treatment.
No comments:
Post a Comment