Some residents of the Agaja community in the Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State may soon face health challenges following the consumption of a washed-up whale in the area.
The whale was said to have been washed ashore last week Wednesday but was noticed by members of the community, who feasted on it on Thursday.
A source in the Bonny Local Government Area told journalists that the incident made the residents to besiege the beach with cutlasses, axes and knives as they began to cut parts of the creature.
Recall that thousands of fishes were washed ashore two weeks ago in neighbouring communities, a development that made residents to suspect that toxic substances might have been released into the sea through oil pipe leakages.
According to a source who identified himself as Jack, some parts of the whale were already rotten as the residents deliberately avoided those areas and concentrated on the fresh parts.
He said: “Even after serious warning that eating the washed-up fishes was dangerous as nobody knew the cause of the death, some people still came out to cut parts of the whale.
“You know that there has been this trend of fishes being washed ashore. We are not actually sure of the cause of death of the fishes in our waters, but we suspect that it could be as a result of leakages from oil pipelines.
“The people, who are eating the whale, are saying it is manna from heaven and because they have been hungry due to the lockdown, the appearance of the whale is considered a blessing from God.”
He, however, stated that members of the Finima Park Authorities had come to evacuate the remains of the whale with a view to properly disposing them and stop the residents from consuming it.
Speaking on the health hazard of consuming the washed-up whale, a medical doctor, Tony Anaweokhai, tstressed that it was dangerous to take it as food because the cause of death had not been ascertained.
He stated, “The whale could have died as a result of chemical ingestion or of natural causes. The truth is that the cause of death has not been ascertained and that is why it should not be consumed by humans.
“Generally, eating wild animals is hazardous. It is a good thing that restaurants in the state are closed because of the COVID-19 lockdown. If not, the meat of the whale would have found its way into most of our restaurants and that could constitute public health hazard.”
