Two persons died on Thursday in Ezillo community, Ishielu local government area of Ebonyi State, after eating a fresh fish.
Another was said to have become blind after eating the fish.
The victims are labourers hired by one Mr. Alieze for his construction work.
A resident of the community who gave his name as Odoh Onyinyechi told The Nation that the victims were working and decided to observe rest when they went to a near-by stream where they harvested the fish seen as poisonous by the community.
She said: ‘’ A man from our community went to the town and brought people to work for him. The people later went to the stream to fetch water and came back with some fishes.
‘’We told them that these fishes are forbidden in our area because we don’t consume them and if you must eat it, you must remove the scale but I don’t think they listened to our advise.
‘’Before we could know it, two of the labourers died and one of them could not see anymore. We don’t eat this particular fish species for any reason and we always tell anyone found with it to prepare it properly if you must eat it,” she said.
Another resident of the area, who preferred anonymity, said he saw the victims harvesting the fish in the stream and warned them not to eat it.
‘’Those people were busy harvesting fishes in our stream and I went closer to them and saw the fishes. I told them not to eat one of the species which were among the ones they harvested. I told them to ensure they remove the scale before preparing it because the scale is very dangerous,” the resident said.
The state’s Police Public Relations officer, Chris Anyanwu, could not be reached for confirmation as he was said to be out of town on official assignment.
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