KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 — The farmer who was remanded in connection with the death of two siblings after they ate snacks containing poison in Kampung Padang Ubi, Labu Besar in Kulim on July 7, has questioned the grandmother’s claim that the food was taken from his orchard.
In a video released on Facebook yesterday, Uzair Shafawi Hasbullah, 34, also questioned how the victims could have reached the snacks, which were tied at a height of 1.37 metres in his 0.8-hectare orchard, Malay news portal Harian Metro reported today.
He said that at the time of the incident, he was sleeping at home as he had been up all night guarding his eight cows from being stolen.
“Not long after that, my mother came and asked where I had placed the snacks chips because the neighbour’s children were suspected of consuming poison from the snacks.
“I was puzzled because the snacks were tied high and in a bushy area. How could the two siblings, who were only two and three years old, have taken them?” he said when met at his home today.
Uzair Shafawi said the poisoned snacks were tied near a fence close to the bushes in the forest, not by the roadside fence.
He added that following the incident, he was detained by the police and remanded for eight days to assist in the investigation, during which he fully cooperated with the authorities.
However, he expressed dissatisfaction that the children’s grandparents and mother were not investigated for neglect.
“I have seen the two siblings walking in the oil palm plantation area not far from here without supervision. The area is dangerous because of wild animals like wild boars, monkeys, and cobras.
He also expressed embarrassment after being criticised on social media and becoming the subject of village gossip by people unaware of the real story behind the incident.
“Because of that, I had to upload a video explaining the real situation on social media yesterday.
“My intention was to clear my name because there have been many slanders against me,” he said.
The nine-minute video has garnered 53,000 shares, 68,000 likes, and 10,000 comments so far.
Uzair Shafawi said that since the incident, he has stopped using poisoned snacks to trap monkeys that frequently attack his crops, fearing a similar incident might occur again.
He now uses metal cages from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) to trap wild monkeys.
Malay Mail had previously reported that two brothers, aged two and three, died after consuming snacks containing rat poison in Kampung Padang Ubi on July 7.
Muhammad Akil Syauqi, 3, died while receiving treatment at Penang Hospital on July 10, followed by his younger brother, Muhammad Luth Syauqi, 2, who died two days later.