The Ummaru Ladan family has lost six members, including a ten-year-old girl, after they mistakenly used local henna chemicals instead of white spice while cooking.
The incident occurred in Kaura town, Shagari Local Government Area of Sokoto State.
The family cooks a soup with “Gishirin lalle” (henna salt for Hausa) with the ammonium chlorite used on Wednesday and reheats the food on Thursday morning before lunch.
According to Kabiru Muhammad, a relative of the family, the girl who died first fell ill on Thursday and was given malaria treatment.
Muhammad said, “On Thursday I will see in every village where the girls are running around.”
“Well, on Friday morning the girl died, after she died the house gets sick, so we are taking her to Shagari General Hospital.”
“After reaching the hospital, Alhaji Ummaru’s wife is dying. So we join her funeral prayers at her own di main hospital for Sokoto, UDUTH.
“But before they can be moved, one person died on Saturday, so we have to move three patients.”
And he says: “At UDUTH two of them are dead, and on Monday one of them will die, so we will say a funeral prayer for him too.”
“Pipo members include one of my wives, I am a Pikin, two of my parents-in-law, we marry their sons, and two of my grandchildren,” they said.
When BBC Pidgin asks how they became aware of the chemical (ammonium chlorite) responsible for the deaths, Muhammad says a girl in the house noticed the mistake on Friday when they were looking for the chemical they could use.
Note that you should never use seasonings near chemicals. The same applies to white seasonings and ammonium chlorite.
Dan Modi Sahabi we are the niece of Alhaji Ummaru, let’s say Alhaji Ummaru also chopped the food but only small, well why am I being discharged from the hospital after giving them medicine?
Sahabi said: “Right now, Alhaji Ummaru is in shock and we are not even able to respond again because of the state we are in.”
The Pipo wey live for the city. Describe the Pipo wey bin die as Pipo wey love Odas, live peacefully and do not quarrel with anyone.
Hajiya Asabe Balarabe, the Sokoto State Commissioner for Health, said they had no contact with them when the incident happened and by the time they tried to save the person’s life, they could already be causing serious harm.
This incident occurred a week after six million people died of food poisoning in Sokoto State.
