Ondo’s Toxic Drinks Crisis: Who Let the Poison into the Market?

• The Ondo toxic drinks tragedy has killed 38 people and hospitalised more than 100 others, with suspected methanol contamination now at the centre of the investigation. As police pursue a suspected producer, the deaths raise deeper questions over product safety, regulatory enforcement and how dangerous drinks reached consumers.

What began as 24 unexplained deaths after residents consumed locally brewed drinks has escalated into a wider public-health and regulatory crisis, with police arresting a suspected producer and recovering substances believed to contain methanol.

The death toll from suspected toxic alcoholic and herbal concoctions in Ondo State has risen to 38, according to the latest reports, with more than 100 people reportedly hospitalised as police and health authorities investigate what may have turned a local drinks trade into a mass poisoning incident.

The deaths were recorded mainly in Araromi-Obu and Odigbo communities in Odigbo Local Government Area, where residents began falling ill after consuming locally produced alcoholic and herbal drinks. The scale of the incident emerged gradually.

Initial reports put the death toll at 24. That figure rose to 27 and then 32 as local officials continued receiving reports from affected communities. By September 12, Ondo State Commissioner for Health Banji Ajaka confirmed 29 deaths from 60 suspected poisoning cases.

The state government responded by temporarily banning the production and sale of locally brewed alcoholic and alcoholic herbal beverages in the affected area.

But the central question remains: what exactly was in the drinks?

Police have now recovered substances suspected to contain methanol, an industrial chemical that can cause severe poisoning when consumed. The substances have been sent for forensic examination, while post-mortem examinations are being conducted on the deceased. Police have said the tests are necessary to establish the exact composition of the substances and determine whether they are linked to the deaths.

That distinction is important.

Methanol is now a major line of investigation, but the publicly available evidence has not yet established a final medical finding for every death. The investigation has nevertheless moved beyond the health authorities.

The Ondo State Police Command arrested Oloruntoba Babatunde, popularly known as “Meko,” over alleged production of the substances. Fourteen other suspects, described as alleged sellers and consumers of the drinks and concoctions, were also arrested during enforcement operations. The suspects were transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation.

Police say the investigation is examining the entire chain, including the source, production, composition, distribution and consumption of the suspected drinks.

That is where the incident becomes a regulatory story as much as a criminal investigation.

Unapproved drinks can move through informal production and distribution networks with little traceability. Once a product is sold without reliable labelling, manufacturing controls or regulatory oversight, identifying the producer, ingredients, batch, distribution route and affected consumers becomes considerably harder.

The Ondo incident has exposed precisely that vulnerability.

The authorities now have to establish not only whether methanol or another toxic substance was present, but where it came from, who introduced it into the production process, how the drinks were distributed and whether other communities may have consumed products from the same source.

The investigation will also test the effectiveness of enforcement before the deaths occurred.

The state has already begun a crackdown on unapproved alcoholic and herbal products, with security and health officials moving through affected communities and markets. Local officials have urged residents to stop buying drinks and concoctions whose contents and origins cannot be verified.

For now, the 38 deaths represent the human cost of a supply chain that appears to have operated outside normal product-safety controls.

The forensic results will determine the medical cause. The police investigation will determine responsibility. But the regulatory question is already clear: how did potentially dangerous alcoholic products reach consumers at this scale without being detected earlier?

That answer matters beyond Ondo.

Because if the products were contaminated during production, the failure was one of manufacturing control. If an industrial chemical such as methanol was deliberately or negligently introduced, the investigation must establish how and why. If the products were being sold without the required regulatory oversight, enforcement failures will also have to be examined.

Until the laboratory and post-mortem findings are released, the responsible description remains suspected toxic or contaminated alcoholic and herbal drinks.

What is no longer in doubt is the scale of the tragedy. The death toll has climbed from 24 to 38 in less than a week.

Now, the authorities have to trace the substance, trace the producer, trace the distribution chain and determine how many people may still be at risk.