A 17-month-old baby simply identified as Abdulhafeez at Kuntu/Agbo-Oba area of Ilorin, Kwara State, has died after reportedly drinking about 60 centilitres (cl) of kerosene mistaken which he mistook for water, soon after having a meal of boiled rice with his elder sister.

Narrating the family's ordeal, the mother of the victim, who is a kerosene and yam-flour dealer, said though she had lost other children in the past, the loss of Abdulhafeez was inexplicable.

According to the middle-aged mother-of-four, simply identified as 'Iya Luku,' on the ill-fated day, her daughter, who had gone to sell kerosene to customers in the morning returned home with four unsold bottles which she left close-by.

"I left two half-filled bottles outside where I cooked and when their father, who had been out returned, he said the half-filled bottles should be properly kept. But before I could go put them away, his sister had opened the two half-filled bottles for him.

"When I came out, I saw my son in a terrible condition. He was writhing in pain and I shouted for help. We tried to give him palm oil but it took some minutes to pass it into his mouth," she explained.

Iya Luku told LEADERSHIP FRIDAY that while they were on their way to the clinic, the baby fainted intermittently and excreted severally while his tongue turned black instantly.

At the hospital, baby Abdulhafeez was injected and vomited severally, but all efforts to resuscitate him proved abortive. He was declared dead minutes later.