Residents of Oyorokoto town in the Andoni Local Government Area (LGA) and Finima town in the Bonny Local Government Area (LGA) of Rivers State have called on the state government to come to their aid over mysterious death of fishes in their rivers.

The residents said that the dead fishes were washed ashore, adding that they had not uncovered the cause of the incident.

They expressed their concerns over the ugly development, saying it had the potential to trigger another health emergency, if not immediately addressed.

The Chairman of Ngo Town Community Development Committee, Andoni LGA, Clement Sunday, who spoke with our news reporter via a telephone interview, said hardship had forced residents of Oyorokoto fishing settlement to resort to eating the dead fishes, ignoring the probable health implications.

However, he urged the state government to intervene quickly in the situation, since the livelihood of the locals had been adversely affected.

Golden fish, catfish, mallets and other species of fishes have been washed ashore at Oyorokoto fishing community for over two weeks now. Many dead fishes are at the Finima, Brass seashores, down to Oyorokoto.

We have not been able to ascertain what is killing the fishes; that is why we are calling on the ministry of health to intervene and stop our people from eating the dead fishes. This issue has brought another form of hardship to my people because fishing is their main source of sustenance,

Sunday stated.

Leader of Lighthouse Fishing Settlement in Finima community, Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, Sodienye Alex-Brown, said residents needed urgent medical attention to avoid possible disease outbreak in the area following the people’s ignorant consumption of the affected fishes.

Alex-Brown said,

My people need medical attention because they have been ignorantly eating the dead fishes and we don’t know what killed them.

We don’t know what will be the outcome over a period of time. That is why we are calling on the government to come and carry out a medical examination on the people to see if they have consumed abnormal substance into their bodies.

The state’s Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Igbiks Tamuno, when contacted, said the government had retrieved samples of the dead fishes and taken them to the laboratory for thorough investigation, in order to determine what was killing the fishes in large numbers.

He, however, cautioned people of the affected communities to abstain from eating the dead fishes, until their cause of death was determined.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.