The police commissioner in Enugu, Ahmed Ammani, has ordered the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of six people in an Enugu community.

The commissioner also directed the department to unravel why eight patients were hospitalised under the same strange circumstances in Akutara village in the Adani community of the Uzo-Uwani local government area.

The commissioner’s directives were disclosed in a statement by the police spokesman, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, on Sunday in Enugu.

Mr Ndukwe said the directives were given after receiving a report alleging the sudden and unnatural deaths and hospitalisation at Akutara village on Saturday.

The police spokesman stated that the commissioner had already commiserated with the families and friends of the deceased and noted that the police boss called on the community’s residents to maintain peace and support the police with the necessary information in the investigation.

“Preliminary investigation reveals that one of the confirmed deceased victims, Obinna Dike, 31, attended his own traditional marriage ceremony at Obollor-Eke in Udenu council area on August 26 with his relatives and other victims of the incident,” the police statement explained. “They thereafter went back home and continued with the celebration.”

The statement added that the following morning, “none of them came out of the room where they slept.”

“This caused the door to be forced open, with all of them in the room found to be unconscious with foamy discharges from their mouths,” the police said.

According to the statement, they were evacuated to a hospital, where six of them were confirmed dead and deposited in the mortuary for autopsy.

The police said eight others had been responding to treatment. 

(NAN)