By Rose Oladele
The Baale of Arikuyeri, Chief Bashiru Gbolagade has revealed that the mysterious sickness that killed some residents of the community is cholera.
Arikuyeri and Lagun are the two communities that lost some residents to what was initially interpreted as a strange disease.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Bashiru Bello, had said that tests carried out on the victims were yet to confirm the disease to be cholera, noting that it would be premature to conclude that it was an outbreak of cholera.
Gbolagade, however, told Newspeakonline that the incident actually happened in the first week of October, adding that only one person died while four others were discharged after medical treatment.
“The outbreak of cholera actually happened last month and five people were affected, only one person died and the others survived,” he said.
He stated that the case was reported to Lagelu Local Government, but that nothing was done. The Baale added that the local government chairman visited twice with health personnel to sympathise with the community.
“The local government chairman only came for inspection of the entire community and nothing was done since then. We were told that each house should go and build toilets,” Gbolagade added.
The community leader further explained that the chairman and health experts also educated residents on the need to keep their environment clean.
He said the community is facing a lot of challenges as a result of poor infrastructures in the communities.
“The only source of water we had is well water, and the wells we have are not even enough for people in the community. No single borehole has been dug in this community. It is more than two years now that we enjoyed electricity supply,” he said.
The community head also said there is a poultry farm in the community that does not dispose its solid waste properly.
He appealed to government to provide health centre, potable water and assist the community with transformer to restore electricity supply to the community.
A community leader in Lagun, Chief Lafeef Akinbola, confirmed that five people died last week when a disease he could not describe struck.
He explained that the victims stooled and vomitted severally, adding that some of the victims survived after getting medical attention.
He noted that the local government chairman has visited the community a number of times along with health officials who advised them to improve on their hygiene.
Akinbola said that the health officials supplied more drugs to the government hospital in the community, adding that they distributed free drugs to residents.
