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orders probe, suspends feeding programme in affected school

There was palpable fear on Monday after 18 pupils of St. James Primary School B, Owoope, Osogbo, capital of Osun State, were rushed to different hospitals in the metropolis after eating allegedly poisoned food served them in the school.

According to the parents of the affected children, the food that was served by some food vendors recruited by the state government under the O’Meal free feeding programme was contaminated meal.

They said the affected pupils started experiencing stomach upset and were vomiting no sooner than they returned home from the school.

Upon interrogation, the children said that the O’Meal vendors served each of them a plate of rice with egg.

A video sighted by The Guardian when the children were rushed to a hospital in Osogbo showed some of them receiving drips on sickbed.
One of the pupils confirmed that they started stooling and vomiting when they left the school around 1:00p.m.
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ome of the mothers of the children expressed anger and alleged that they perceived rotten egg from the mouth of the victims.

One of the parents said that her child was vomiting blood before he was rushed to the hospital.They urged the state government to investigate the activities of the O’Meal vendors in the school.

Meanwhile, Osun State government, yesterday, ordered full investigation into the reported cases of food poisoning at the primary school.
The state’s Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, in a statement said that the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, had directed immediate action when the matter was reported to him by the Special Adviser on O-Meal, Grace Oluwaseyi Ayodele.

“The governor has subsequently directed stoppage of further food cooking at the affected school pending the outcome of the investigations,” he said.

Meanwhile, Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Health, Akindele Adekunle, who conducted a physical visitation and medical assessment to some of the victims admitted at the Osun State University Teaching Hospital in Osogbo, said: “Many of the kids on report to the hospital were in good shape except a few of them that require some level of rehydration, while others are already stabilised and set to be discharged after a thorough medical and laboratory examination on them by consortium of medical experts at the teaching hospital who dispelled the rumours of cholera outbreak among the kids.”