Man nabbed for selling ordinary salt as antidote to Lassa Fever

Some Nigerians are always on the lookout for opportunities to reap from where they did not sow or capitalize on any situation to profit.

During the days of Ebola Virus Disease, many unscrupulous Nigerians sold so many fake items as panacea for the disease, with many being duped.

Now with the outbreak of the Lassa Fever, some dubious people have devised means to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians of their hard earned money.

This was the case in Kaduna State where a man was caught while selling ordinary salt which he passed across as an antidote for rats that cause Lassa Fever and snakes.

The packaged salt

Photo Credit: Linda Ikeji

According to an eyewitness who sent in the report, the man was nabbed with the well packaged packets of salt which he told people was an insecticide capable of killing the fever causing rats and snakes.

Read the account of the witness, a Corp member serving in the state:

'On January 25th 2016, a man came to the school to sell/market some stuff, which he said was insecticide that kills cockroach, insects, scorpions, scares snakes away and most of all, Lassa fever. He went into the staff room and many teachers bought the stuff. Unknown to them the content was just ordinary salt…

After selling his products and making more that N18, 000 from the sales, and when he was about leaving the school premises, one of the teachers decided to open her own product.

Lo and behold, it was ordinary cooking salt that was packaged with no name of the product, address or phone number.

So the teacher went to the corridor and called the man to come and collect the stuff back and return her money that she was no longer interested. That was how the unscrupulous man was caught and handed over to the police.'