By Uzair Adam Imam
A joyous celebration of a wedding ceremony in Kano turned into a very traumatic incident as some of the guests died and eight others ended up in hospitals after drinking tea prepared with local leaf, Zakami and unidentified pills.
The incident occurred on the weekend in Sheka, Kumbotso Local Government Area of Kano State.
Alhaji Usman Musa Zakari, the ward head of the area, confirmed the development to journalists on Wednesday.
Zakari said the figures circulating about the number of victims were baseless and unconfirmed, giving the name of the deceased as Mubarak Bala, also known as Diga and Ibrahim Khalil.
According to him, “It is true that the incident happened. It happened when the persons drank a tea prepared with a local leaf called Zakami and a combination of other drugs. Two persons died, and eight others were hospitalised.
“Although there are different versions of the stories being peddled, I delegated persons who went on a fact-finding, and we gathered that only two persons lost their lives. Someone told me four had lost their lives and I asked him to take me to the houses but he later told me that the figure was hearsay.
“Eight other persons were hospitalised after drinking from the tea, but they have all been discharged and going about with their day-to-day activities.”
However, the spokesperson of Kano State Police Command, SP Abdullahi Haruna, said no formal report was made to the police division of the area.