High Chief Moses Enimade told residents God was angry and punishing youth with sickness.
The mysterious diseases which kills patients within 24 hrs, has claimed the lives of 20 youth. The victims reportedly suffered from severe headaches and blindness.
High Chief Moses Enimade, next in command to Oba Cornelius Olanrewaju-Lebi, believed that the cause for their death was because youth broke into the inner room of Molokun Shrine on April 15th.
The chief said youth entered the shrine and stole traditional items to acquire extra-ordinary powers and engage in money ritual.
“They were not qualified to enter the shrine. They had to face death penalty’’ he emphasized.
However, the World Heath Organization (WHO) has put Enimade’s claim to rest, citing pesticide poisoning as the likely cause of the mysterious deaths.
The victims began showing symptoms early last week in what Ondo state spokesman Kayode Akin made called a “mysterious disease”, prompting fears of a new infectious disease outbreak in a region ravaged by Ebola.
The victims, whose symptoms included headache, weight loss, blurred vision and loss of consciousness, died within a day of falling ill in the town of Ode-Irele, in southwestern Ondo state.
The Ondo state health commissioner, Dayo Adeyanju, told AFP Saturday that 23 people had been affected.
Akinmade said health officials and experts from the government and aid agencies, as well as WHO epidemiologists, had arrived in Ode-Irele to investigate the deaths.
The tests were carried out at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, the WHO said.
A high chief of the town had attributed the deaths to the anger of the god of Molokun.
