There was a heated disagreement on Tuesday between the Osun State Government and the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), following an incident of suspected food poisoning which led to about 18 pupils being hospitalised.
The victims, said to be pupils of St. James Primary School B, Osogbo, Osun State, were reportedly taken to hospital on Monday following complications they developed, after taking the mid-day meal served to them in their school, under the government free school feeding programme.
The incident had caused panic, especially among parents of the affected pupils, as videos of them on hospital beds were shared on the social media.
Narrating how they became ill, one of the victims said they were served rice with egg, after which they started running stool.
Also in the video, mothers of the victims, said they observed foul smell of the egg their children were served when they returned home from school on Monday.
They said their children started stooling not long after returning from school, raising concerns about the food they were served by the vendor. They demanded an investigation into the development to prevent reoccurrence.
But a release by the government late Tuesday evening signed by Grace Ayodele, Special Adviser to the Governor on O-Meal and obtained by Osun Defender said clinical tests conducted on the said pupils at the teaching hospital confirmed no traces of food poisoning in their system.
The statement noted that the videos and fake news stories being circulated on the social media were the handiwork of political opponents who were out to tarnish the image of the state government.
The statement reads in part, “The reported food poisoning should not be associated with the mid-day meal given to the pupils by the O’Meals food vendors.
“Findings of government investigation also showed the inconsistency in the testimonies of some of the parents as well as the shady circumstances between the morning feeding and alleged food poisoning late at night.
“The whole allegation was discovered to be politically initiated by some miscreants who intended to score cheap political goal.”
“It will interest the public to know that the students who were said to have been poisoned have since returned to school to continue their examinations. They were fed in the morning and they showed no sign of illness throughout the day”, the statement added.
Speaking on the incident, Osun APC chairman, Mr. Tajudeen Lawal, warned the governor, Ademola Adeleke, to stop toying with the lives of the school pupils with the substandard food being served the pupils by the vendors under the school feeding programme.
Lawal in a statement obtained in Osogbo, stated that the incident was a cumulative effect of the lackadaisical approach of the man at the helm of affairs in the state.
The state APC chairman said, “The humanity in me became uncomfortable when one of the mothers of the victims gave an account of the state of his child that immediately his son came back from school, he started smelling an offensive odour of rotten eggs. Is it true that only miserable N64 was budgeted for each pupil per meal? Is it true the government of Adeleke pays N10,000 per month to each O’Meal vendor?
“If these allegations are true, then Governor Adeleke must have a clear conversation with his Creator. How would the food vendors be dedicated when they are paid peanuts and are not supplied with the right food supplies, at a time he himself budgeted billions for his own food and refreshments?
“The children affected are the future leaders of this country. If Governor Adeleke had been fed with rotten eggs when he was a schoolboy as it happened to innocent schoolchildren, would he have secured the opportunity to become the controversial governor that he is today?
“All the stakeholders should rise up to condemn the laissez-faire approach to governance by Governor Adeleke which was partly manifested with the suspected poisoning of the 18 school pupils with his ill-thought-out and substandard free school feeding programme.”
Hafsoh Isiaq is a graduate of Linguistics. An avid writer committed to creative, high-quality research and news reportage. She has considerable experience in writing and reporting across a variety of platforms including print and online.
