Ten secondary school teachers are reported to have died of food poisoning, and several others hospitalised in Katsina, the Katsina State capital.

Investigations by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) showed that the incident occurred at the weekend during a workshop organised by the state Ministry of Education for some 650 teachers at Government Day Secondary School (GDSS), Kofar Yan’daka, Katsina.

It was gathered that soon after taking their lunch, supplied by a popular corporate caterer on the fateful day, some of the teachers started vomiting and displaying symptoms of diarrhoea. As a result, they were rushed to Federal Medical Centre, Katsina and Police Clinic, for medical attention. Ten of the affected teachers are said to have died as a result of the infection.

When contacted, the permanent secretary in the ministry of education, Khalil Musa, said: “I cannot comment on the issue now, because it has yet to be reported to the state government. I don’t want to pre-empt the government on the issue.”

The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Abubakar Ibrahim, who confirmed the incident, said that only one teacher died, while 19 others were hospitalised.

He said that 12 of the affected teachers had already been discharged from the hospitals, while seven others were still on admission at Federal Medical Centre and Katsina Police Clinic.

He said the police had already collected samples of the food supplied by the caterer for clinical analysis.

A NAN correspondent who visited the hospitals reported that all the victims were being attended to by medical personnel. However, the officials declined to comment on the number of casualties brought to the centres.



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