Some hungry residents in the Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers state acting on a tip off stormed the site of buried tonnes of confiscated frozen chicken which were smuggled into the country...
There was pandemonium on Saturday and Sunday near the Trailer Park at Ebubu in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers when thousands of youths, women and children descended on a burrow pit; dug out and took home several tonnes of chicken condemned and buried by men of the Nigerian Customs.
The scavengers came with shovels, pans, basins and buckets to cart their loot home.
The Customs had on Friday dug out a canal there and buried thousands of cartons of frozen poultry they seized at the Onne Ports. Witnesses said the chicken were brought in six containers, emptied and buried before the customs party left.
But news soon spread abroad about the development and very early on Saturday, the human carrions came calling. With no security at the site, they dug and dug and opened up the pit.
A visit to many homes around the area on Sunday revealed serious barbecuing going on as people roasted and dried the chicken they exhumed from the burial site. In one home a full length refrigerator was stocked full of roast chicken, while the hosts invited guest to a sumptuous pick.
But the development has sent an alarm across Eleme and neighbouring communities about the danger of eating the condemned chicken. The Archbishop of the popular Commonwealth Covenant Church, the Most Rev. Moses Kattey, had to put out a message to the people on Sunday warning people off eating chicken for two weeks.