Five members of a family in Anambra state have died after enjoying a rice meal. Albert Ndenemenu, a commercial motorcycle operator, his wife, Nwanne and their three children died mysteriously in Umuatuegwu Okija, Ihiala Local Government Area of the State after a rice meal.


The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Nkiru Nwode, confirmed the incident, but said investigations were continuing, while they await autopsy reports.

An eyewitness at Umuatuegwu Okija disclosed that Mrs. Nwanne Ndenemu, who was the last to die, “prepared rice for the family’s lunch, which all of them ate and shortly after, her husband and her children started vomiting blood.

"When many people in the village rushed into their compound, following her alarm, it was discovered that they were already dead."

The woman, on seeing the lifeless bodies of her husband and children, collapsed and was taken to Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, NAUTH, Nnewi, where she too died.

An indigene of the area, Sir Ignatius Okonkwo, told Vanguard that the cause of deaths was yet to be ascertained, adding that all efforts made to prevail on the authorities of NAUTH, where the bodies were first deposited, to conduct an autopsy were not successful.

Three distant relations of the deceased were invited, yesterday, by the Police and were interrogated at the Okija Police Station.