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Beware! Killer Bananas Now Being Sold On Lagos Streets, How Man Died After Eating Poisoned Banana

killer banana lagos streets

January 14, 2017 – Beware Of Toxic Banana: How Lagos Journalist Died After Eating Banana Ripened With Carbide, A Killer Toxin

Beware! Poisoned Bananas Now Being Sold On Lagos Streets, How Journalist Died After Eating Poisoned Banana

If Emmanuel Okwuke, a meek and brilliant telecommunications reporter, had known that his favourite fruit, bananas, would dispatch him to an early grave, he probably would not have bought those bananas at the Ketu Market in Lagos, sometime in June last year.

But he was killed after eating those same bananas, which, unknown to him, had been ripened with carbide, a killer toxin.

The 50-year-old journalist had bought the bananas on his way from work that fateful night. Since he worked late and arrived home late each night, Okwuke, who wanted to keep himself fit and healthy, said he usually didn’t like to eat solid meals whenever he returned home in the night.

On that particular day, he had arrived home just before 11pm. After exchanging pleasantries with his wife, he checked on his children in their room. The eldest was 10, while the last child was a baby. The kids were already asleep before he got home, so he ate the fruits alone.

Unknown to him, the bananas he ate had been ripened with carbide, a poisonous toxin. And it didn’t take long for the chemical to start unleashing havoc on the journalist’s entire system.

The reporter later confided in some of his close friends that he visited the restroom all through that night, as the poisoned meal he ate earlier devastated his intestines. By daybreak, he was already very weak and dying in installments.

It was after a check was conducted on him later that it was discovered that what he had for dinner was sheer poison.

“I called my wife, but my voice was not loud enough. But somehow, she found me where I was on the floor. I was very weak and I was rushed to the hospital by my wife and neighbours, as I was told later.
“I didn’t know where I was until the following day. I was told by the doctor that I had food poisoning. And from the test and everything, it was discovered that it was the bananas that I ate that caused the crisis. My wife, Julie, brought the remaining bananas and subsequent tests revealed that they had carbide,” the journalist told some friends before his demise.

Carbide is a compound composed of carbon and a less electronegative element. Most traders now use this chemical to ripen fruits, especially bananas, pawpaw and apples.

Okwuke, who was the Information and Communications Technology Editor of Daily Independent, explained that he was discharged on the third day and went home.

He believed he had overcome the condition totally and that all was well after he had followed the doctors’ prescriptions and was taking his drugs religiously.

But his fellow telecommunications reporters urged him to go for a comprehensive medical examination at another hospital so as to be totally sure that all was well.

That was when he discovered that the fruits he ate had done more damage than he could have imagined.

“My liver has been damaged, but I’m hopeful because my trust is in God,” he told the reporter.

Thereafter, he kept managing his liver with drugs and injections, which cost him about N8,000 on daily basis.

He, however, succumbed to death on the last Christmas Eve, December 24, 2016

[By Olabisi Olaleye Daily Sun]

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Amanda

    January 14, 2017 at 3:24 AM

    Sad……..unfortunate circumstance

  2. Metu Nyetu

    January 14, 2017 at 6:32 AM

    IT BEHOOVES the information ministries throughout Nigeria, together with their health counterparts, to publicise this hazardous trend in the fruit market. They should use gingles on the radio and TV, repeated not less than thrice per hour, until the whole Nigerians become aware of this danger.

  3. MAN D BEST

    January 14, 2017 at 7:21 AM

    SO TOUCHING. THIS STORY MUST BE REBROADCASTED TO CURTAIL FURTHER DEATH

  4. fifelomo

    January 14, 2017 at 7:53 AM

    Very tragic.

  5. clifford

    January 14, 2017 at 12:54 PM

    A pity friend. Very unfortunate. Others could have died of same without reporting. However there could still be another angle to this. Could be the fruit was not well washed. Carbide does not have that fast killing property. Could be you had degenerating organ without you knowing and was brought to bare by the presence of the carbide. Also the traders and their families also feed on the left over or non marketable sizes of the fruit. Over time they have not died and they do not treat theirs separately. However it is a pity you fell victim.

  6. Big Aunty Koks

    January 14, 2017 at 7:53 PM

    Somehow, bananas in Enugu look like the spotless one shown in the first picture and I am not aware of any side effects although most people eat same. There might be some other explanation. Indeed upon commenting about the attractiveness of the bananas the explanation was that while the bunch was not ripe and still on the stem some farmers use poly theme bags to cover the bunches to shield them from insects and too much sun hence the smoothness of the banana skin.
    It is a pity this incident occurred. This is where NAFDAC could be helpful in taking up the matter just to ascertain that consumers do not buy health hazards .

  7. Niyi

    January 18, 2017 at 1:34 PM

    To me this story i false, and the cause of his death should be properly investigated, because 99% of all the bananas we eat are being ripened with the said carbide.

  8. Niyi

    January 18, 2017 at 1:57 PM

    The main cause of his death should be properly investigated,because 99% of all the bananas we eat is ripened from the said carbide, let stop cooking lies, if the chemical is not good for human health let our government do something about it.

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