3 brothers arrested for selling contaminated beans to the public

Three brothers, who allegedly sold contaminated beans to the public have been arrested by the police in Lagos State.

The arrested brothers were said to have in the past sold the contaminated beans to members of the public around Alakuko and Alagbado  area of the state .

The arrested suspects were identified as Chjioke Ogbonna, Sunday Ogbonna and Faith Ogbonna and they were on Wednesday paraded before newsmen by the state police commissioner, Fatai Owoseni.

They were said to be mixing their beans with a popular insecticide, Sniper, when one of the buyers caught them in the act.

The suspects though confessed to apply sniper to their beans, they claimed to be using it as pesticide.

The buyer, who was alarmed by the discovery reported the case at Alakuko police station from where the foodstuff sellers were arrested.

One of the suspects, Chijioke said “we were only using the sniper it to preserve the beans from being damaged by the pests.”

Chijioke added that: “I don’t know it’s harmful, I saw people using it for preservation that was why I decided to use it Pests had destroyed some bags of beans in our shop and to prevent it from destroying others that was why I applied the chemical.”

The suspect however confessed that he had never taken from the beans, since he started applying sniper as pesticide

“I don’t eat from it. I ate different beans, I don’t know that sniper is harmful it was one of our customer who saw me that told me it is dangerous,” he said.

The owner of the shop, Faith absolved his younger brothers of any wrong doing though he admitted that they applied sniper.

The shop owner said: “sincerely I am the owner of the shop, I have another shop somewhere else, I was not aware when he used the sniper to preserve the beans, it was because I once told him they usually use  such chemicals to kill insects I believe that was why he used it.”

He added that “But where I used to buy the beans from Maiduguri, I used to see people using such chemical to preserve and kill insects my brother did not do it deliberately to kill or to harm anybody.”

The state police boss said “after suspects were arrested their elder brother tried to offer the Divisional Police Officer of Alakuko N500, 000 so as to free his brothers while the remaining beans have been confiscated.”