Alleged food poisoning: School feeding resumes in Osun school

The Federal Government’s school feeding programme in Saint James Primary School B, People, Osogbo has resumed.

The programme was earlier suspended over alleged poisoning of some pupils in the school in December, 2023.

late last year, about 18 pupils of Saint James Primary School B, Owoope were hospitalised after eating a midday meal of rice, egg and vegetables.

The state government later moved in and suspended the feeding programme in the school after stakeholders demanded a thorough investigation of the development.

The state government directed a probe into the incident and subjected the affected pupils to a test at the Osun State University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo.

Commissioner for Education, Dipo Eluwole, later revealed that the pupils were all certified well except one that was observed to be suffering malnutrition.

Also, a delegation of the Federal Government, led by Senior Special Assistant to the President on School Feeding, Yetunde Adeniji, paid a visit to Osun State.

According to her, “the visit was a fact-finding one to get abreast with updates on the purported food poisoning on December 12 under the state government’s Home Grown School Feeding programme.

“The FG will be establishing a monitoring and evaluation unit to ensure continued commitment to the safety and success of school feeding programmes across the country.

“In the coming days, our office would ensure government policies are strictly adhered to across the federation to standardise school feeding programs in Nigeria, among other sweeping reforms.”

Nothing has been said about the outcome of the probe weeks after the state government directed a thorough investigation into the incident.

However, it was revealed that the school feeding programme has since resumed in the school.

The Osun Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi on Monday stated that the programme resumed not long after the government probe was concluded.

“The programme resumed not long after it was suspended after the government had done thorough investigations.

“The initiative is running without a hitch and the pupils are eating without any problem,” he said.