Enugu: Family loses five to suspected food poisoning

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The family of Pastor Ignatius Ikeze of Neke Akpani Autonomous Community in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State has been thrown into mourning following the death of five members in an alleged food poisoning.

The incident, our correspondent gathered on Thursday, happened between August 30 and 31, 2025.

Ikeze, who spoke to some journalists in Enugu on the devastating incident, revealed that the members were the immediate family of his younger brother, whom he gave his name as Barnabas Ikeze, his wife, Angela, and three children.

He gave their names as Divine Ikeze, Gift Ikeze, and Victor Ikeze.

Although he said that he was not around when the incident happened, he was informed that their ordeal began when they took their evening meal on August 29, only to wake up the following morning with severe stomach cramps.

The neighbours and family relations immediately rushed them to the FaithLand Clinic, a hospital in a neighbouring community in Ikem, headquarters of Isi-Uzo LGA, since there is no functional hospital in the community and the entire Neke Town.

On the road, one of the children, identified as Divine, died, and Gift, the only daughter, died on getting to the hospital, leaving four: their father, Barnabas; mother, Angela; first son, Marvellous, and the last child, Victor. Unfortunately, they also died on Sunday night in a dramatic turn of events, with only the first son surviving.

According to him, he went to a conference in Abuja and returned on Saturday, August 30, and was informed of the unfortunate situation in the night.

“On Sunday, August 31, I went to the hospital, saw my brother, wife, and two other sons alive. I went to the mortuary and saw the two who had died.”

He further narrated, “It was said that after they ate food on Friday night, the food was poisoned. On Saturday morning, all of them began to have severe stomach cramps, and they were rushed to the hospital, and two died. Then, the remaining four were there. When I came, my brother, Barnabas, told me that he was hungry, and I bought food for them. The other two sons were also recovering. We all charted. Although the wife was on oxygen, she responded to greetings.

“She was just recovering, and in the evening, I went out, and one of my sisters was taking care of them. When I returned in the evening, she narrated a story to me that one man who was alleged to be responsible for my brother’s family condition, that when they were having our clan meeting just a week before the incident had openly said he would deal with my brother. That he would kill him, because there was a case raised in that meeting, and he spoke the truth. The suspect (name withheld) saw him as a threat and swore to eliminate him.

“And this person in question had been consistently saying that he would wipe out all my family members because of a land dispute, which the entire community adjudicated, and we won. Since the land dispute victory, the man swore that he would wipe out our entire family,” he claimed. Punch