Hamza Idris
16 March 2008
Damaturu — Worried by the manner residents of the area continue to die due to kidney related ailments, authorities in Bade local government area of Yobe State has set up a committee to monitor the processing, storage and sales of food items in the area.
The caretaker chairman of the council, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Dawayo has also called on the officials of Traders Association in the council to warn their members against selling adulterated food items to unsuspecting customers. He made the call while addressing officials of the association at the conference hall of the secretariat in Gashua. Dawayo said the meeting became necessary due to increased cases of kidney failure in the area which are mostly attributed to the food being sold to people. Medical sources in the area attribute the menace of water related diseases as some of the causes of the kidney failure. The chairman said about 37 people died in Gashua, the headquarters of Bade local government area in the last three months due to kidney failure while several others are now in hospitals.
He said the meeting was therefore aimed at sensitizing the marketers on the dangers of the disease adding that so far the suspected source of the disease is the adulteration of food items in the bid to preserve them. The chairman said the council has banned the use of chemicals as a way of preserving food items such as fish, beans and vegetables among others. It was discovered that in Gashua marketers use chemicals to preserve food items during the glut period with the intent of selling them at higher prices during the period of shortages.
"It is practically impossible to allow a single individual or group of individuals to be killing unsuspecting members of the public with contaminated food in the guise of making prohibitive profit", Dawayo warned.
The chairman also warned bakers against using saccharine and bromide in preparing bread, cake and other consumables. He said any baker found wanting would be prosecuted before the law court while his operating license would be withdrawn.
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