Alcoholic Drink “Monkey Tail” has just Killed 30 people in Ondo State.

The death toll from a toxic local alcoholic brew known as “Monkey Tail” has crossed 30 people in Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State.

ODIGBO, ONDO STATE — It takes only a few seconds to down a shot of “Monkey Tail”—a cheap, ubiquitous local concoction of distilled gin mixed with roots and herbs. But between September 3 and September 7, 2026, those few seconds became a death sentence for dozens of residents across Odigbo town, Araromi-Obu, and Orita Odigbo.

What began as a typical week in these bustling communities quickly transformed into a medical nightmare. Over 30 people are dead, and dozens more remain hospitalized, victims of what authorities suspect is a lethal batch of adulterated, ethanol-heavy local brew.

The crisis unfolded with terrifying speed. Between Tuesday and Saturday, local clinics and community leaders began noticing a horrific pattern. Men and women who had visited local drinking spots or bought bottles from street vendors were collapsing.

The symptoms were swift and devastating:

In direct response to the mounting casualties, Taiwo Adegoroye, the Chairman of Odigbo Local Government, announced an immediate, one-month total ban on the sale, distribution, and consumption of locally distilled alcohol and street herbal drinks across the locality.

Security agencies moved swiftly into the community, shutting down popular “paraga” joints and arresting at least one major supplier linked to the deadly batch. However, tracking the source remains an uphill battle. “Monkey Tail” is rarely branded; it is brewed in makeshift backyard distilleries, transferred into unlabelled plastic bottles, and distributed through informal network chains that span multiple villages.

While toxicologists and medical teams from the Ondo State Ministry of Health conduct autopsies and laboratory analysis, the clinical presentation points directly to methanol poisoning.

In illicit brewing, unregulated fermentation can produce methanol instead of safe ethanol. Unscrupulous dealers also intentionally spike drinks with industrial methanol, battery acid, or chemical solvents to increase the “potency” or stretch their profits. When ingested, methanol breaks down into formic acid in the human body—a highly toxic substance that permanently destroys the optic nerve (causing immediate blindness) and causes rapid organ failure.

The Ondo State Government has issued an urgent public health warning, pleading with citizens to entirely avoid uncertified herbal mixtures and locally distilled gins.

For the families in Odigbo, the warning comes too late. As a quiet grief settles over the local government area, the tragedy exposes a deeper socio-economic issue: the dangerous reliance on unregulated, cheap substances in rural communities, where a single shot of alcohol can cost less than a bottle of clean water—but ultimately costs a life.