POLICE in Plateau State have arrested some residents of Dong village in Jos North Local Government Area for exhuming and consuming bird flu-infected chickens. The chairman, Sub-committee on Sanitation and Transportation of the Plateau State Bird Flu Committee, Mr. Joseph Pate, made the announcement in Jos yesterday.
Pate said the infected birds were from a farm in Jos and had been buried on Monday after they were confirmed to have died of the flu. He expressed shock that some of the villagers had gone to the dump site and exhumed the infected birds to form part of their meals.
The chairman said the action of the people had exposed them and others to the deadly virus, noting that it could lead to death. The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Isa Adejoh, was not available to comment on the arrests.
An official of the Ministry of Health, Mr. Iliya Azi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the villagers� action was condemnable. Azi said the consumers of the birds stood the risk of being infected because the cells in the dead chickens had the bird flu virus.
Apr62006