A septuagenarian, her son and two grandchildren died in the Eruda community of Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on Tuesday night after eating amala lafun (cassava flour meal).

Also, another man died of gastroenteritis.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina El-Imam, who confirmed this at a press conference, said the entire health team of the ministry visited the community following the report of a family who lost some relations after a meal.

The commissioner said the state government placed the area on Outbreak Response Mode after confirmation of the deaths.

She said: “On getting there, the claim was that there was an instance of food poisoning where the 70-year-old woman fell ill and died after consuming Amala. Unfortunately, her son and grandchildren also consumed the same food and fell ill. They were taken to the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), where they passed away,” she said.

El-Imam hinted that the meal could have caused the deaths, noting that family members who took yam flour instead were fine.

She said: “It was observed that the residence was in a location where personal and environmental hygiene was not optimal.”

According to her, the incident was a case of chemical food poisoning, potentially due to under-processed cassava.

“We have another four cases recovering at the moment, in addition, of course, to the four that we unfortunately lost,” she said.

The commissioner stressed that an Initial Rapid Diagnostic (IRD) test was conducted on a suspected case of cholera, which turned out to be gastroenteritis. She revealed that one death was recorded at Osin Gada, in Ilorin West Local Council of Kwara.

“The community had a few cases of stooling and vomiting, predominantly among children, of which, unfortunately, one life was lost. The vomiting and stooling drew the attention of the state’s disease reporting structure.

“On getting there, treatment was immediately commenced, and all the affected patients received immediate standard treatments to stop the symptoms, treat them, and restore them to health,” she said.