A middle-aged man, widely known as Uncle Light, and his son, Miracle, have reportedly died from suspected food poisoning at Ebebe Junction in Abakaliki, the capital of Ebonyi State.
The incident is believed to have occurred after they consumed poisoned food, allegedly prepared by a woman who had moved in with the man following a divorce earlier in the year.
When our correspondent visited the scene on Wednesday, the bodies of the father and son were found in different areas of the compound.
The father was lying inside the house, unclothed, while the son’s body was found near the gate.
A local resident, who wished to remain anonymous, shared that the woman who lived with the victims had left the house early in the morning with her baby and had not returned since the incident.
The resident stated, “Since the incident happened on Wednesday, we haven’t seen the woman.”
“She left early in the morning with her baby while abandoning the man and his son here. We don’t know what they ate that made them start vomiting.”
“The man is lying inside naked; while you can see the son lying down at the gate. We need help for them to be evacuated to the hospital before they start smelling.”
Police Public Relations Officer, Joshua Ukandu, confirmed that he had not yet received an official report on the incident, but assured that police personnel would be sent to the area to investigate further.
Shortly after, police arrived at the scene with a man who identified himself as the brother of the woman.
He claimed that his sister was ill and in custody.
Another anonymous resident, who was not authorized to speak on the matter, recounted, “I heard a loud voice in the middle of the night and I told my wife that something was happening in our neighbourhood.”
“At a point, we thought it was noise from church people doing their programme. It was early in the morning that we saw the son struggling and writhing in pain and came outside the gate.”
“He was crying for water. A friend provided him with water before he suddenly died. We are suspecting diarrhoea, but it’s for an autopsy to confirm what killed him.”
As at the time of this report, the bodies of the deceased have been removed from the scene by the police.
