Ode-Irele, an Ikale community and headquarters of Irele Lo­cal Government Area of Ondo State, was last week enveloped by mourning, following the death of many natives of the town.

A strange disease was ravaging the town, causing instant blindness and death. No fewer than 22 young men were dispatched to their early graves.

Elders of the community said the town had not seen such a mysterious disease in its 200 years.

Some leaders of the community insisted that the victims were involved in the theft of some ancient artefacts inside the Malokun shrine.

This submission was, however, countered by medical experts, including the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju. He said the strange disease could have been caused by poor hygiene and other issues, stressing that findings by medical experts on the matter would be made public after the conclusion of the laboratory tests. I know for a fact that scientist would always claim to have theory to things like this however, I would employ them to tell us what type of poor hygiene would cause such breakout and fast death so we can do as much as watch such poor eating hygiene habit.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Sunday that pesticide poisoning might be the cause of the mystery deaths of at least 18 people in Ode Irele town, Ondo state. The “current hypothesis is that the cause of the event is herbicides”, WHO spokesman, Gregory Hartl, said in a tweet. He however gave no details. The victims have shown symptoms of headache, blurred vision or total blindness and loss of consciousness, followed by death. The interesting part to this whole theory saga is the Ondo State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju, while addressing journalists on Sunday, said all victims of the ailment, both dead and alive, have been discovered to have partaken of ogogoro at a particular joint days before the outbreak. Adeyanju disclosed that while interacting with some of the survivors in Ode Irele on Saturday, they all confirmed that they took the local gin at a particular joint.

We are yet to know if this is as a result of corpse theft, poor hygiene, pesticide poisoning or Ogogoro consumption, but in all I say, May the souls of the departed RIP.