Thirty-six residents in Yarwein Mehnsonnoh District, Nimba County, are reportedly hospitalized at Jackson Fiah Doe Memorial Regional Hospital, situated in Tappita Statutory District.
Many perceived that it might be food poisoning, following the consumption of a dead goat on the farm of a church pastor.
The local state security, the media, and the hospital in the area confirmed the incident, but they remain tight-lipped on the issue, with nobody willing to provide details yet.
However, the suspect is believed to be the owner of the farm and the goat, identified only as Pastor Joshua. On Friday, July 14, he was placed in police custody in Tappita, pending investigation, and could be forwarded to court thereafter.
The victims of the dead goat include 26 females and 10 males, but their identities are unknown up to press time, with some even fearing them dead because of the severity of their illness, vomiting blood, among other things.
According to the report, the incident happened in Yarwein Mehnsonnon Statutory District, Electoral District 9, Nimba County, where the accused hired some local residents to work on his farm on that fateful day.
There and then, when these people got on the farm of the pastor, they saw a dead goat, but instead of asking questions as to what might have been the cause of death, they wasted no time in butchering the animal.
The dead goat became their meal that day, but following the day’s work, they started getting sick, evidenced by severe vomiting and weakness, raising concerns among other residents.
The report says even those who took the raw meat of the dead goat to their houses from the farm were not spared as their health condition deteriorated as well, putting fear in the residents of the District.
Though the cause of the goat’s death is yet unknown, some residents are insinuating that the pastor (Joshua) might have injected the goat with poison and left it unattended to on the farm, but these comments are yet to be independently confirmed.
Until the Health Ministry, National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), Environmental Protection Agency, and others can collect sample of the dead goat and run some tests, what really happened remains a mystery.
In a similar development, five local chiefs have been arrested and placed in police custody, waiting to be arraigned before court anytime this week in Foya Statutory District, Lofa County.
Though the identities of those accused are unknown, they were arrested last Friday, July 14 in connection with the 36 dead cows in a field in Kelima Bendu Town, Foyah District, Lofa County.
According to the report, the arrest came after the setting-up of an investigation panel by Lofa County Superintendent, William Tamba Kamba, following the mysterious disappearance of the dead cows.
The accused are reportedly being held for allegedly reaching secret contractor agreement with some Fulani of Malian origin that brought 500 cows to the district without the consent of the Statutory District Superintendent, Commissioner and others.
As the result, those cows had been going on rampage, destroying crops and farmlands for which complaints were lodged with the district’s leadership but not addressed, until when 36 of them, stationed at Kelima Town’s field, were found dead on Thursday, July 6.
The two incidents of dead cows and goat which happened in Lofa and Nimba Counties within less than a month seem to be raising concerns about the safety of cattle meat on the local market nowadays.
