Jos — Goskolo is a dangerous local gin that has emerged on the Plateau, with many youths addicted to it in the desire to be ‘high’ or transmute into a higher realm. This silent killer has sent many to untimely graves as the community looks helpless in curbing the trend.

David Sunday sat with bulgy red eyes, with lower lip gazing around and trying hard not to fall asleep. Clad in a dirty yellow striped T. shirt and stained blue jeans, it was obvious the 27-year-old was under the influence of something. His incoherent speech, the slow gestures with his hands and the nauseous smell that oozed from his body readily gave him away.

Obviously Sunday was one of the numerous youths in the state addicted to the popular gin called goskolo. Based on a price, he simply acceded to a request for interview on the local gin. he agreed to be conveyed to a ‘neutral’ ground where he jumbled his barely audible words in confession to his loyalty to goskolo.

Sunday’s first utterance was “call me Sky B”; and added, “are you asking to know or do you want to take goskolo?” By the end of this short encounter, Sky B was swearing and making promises never to touch the gin again. But later in the day, he broke his vows and was at his usual Tudun Wada joint.

Jos — Goskolo is a dangerous local gin that has emerged on the Plateau, with many youths addicted to it in the desire to be ‘high’ or transmute into a higher realm. This silent killer has sent many to untimely graves as the community looks helpless in curbing the trend.

David Sunday sat with bulgy red eyes, with lower lip gazing around and trying hard not to fall asleep. Clad in a dirty yellow striped T. shirt and stained blue jeans, it was obvious the 27-year-old was under the influence of something. His incoherent speech, the slow gestures with his hands and the nauseous smell that oozed from his body readily gave him away.

Obviously Sunday was one of the numerous youths in the state addicted to the popular gin called goskolo. Based on a price, he simply acceded to a request for interview on the local gin. he agreed to be conveyed to a ‘neutral’ ground where he jumbled his barely audible words in confession to his loyalty to goskolo.

Sunday’s first utterance was “call me Sky B”; and added, “are you asking to know or do you want to take goskolo?” By the end of this short encounter, Sky B was swearing and making promises never to touch the gin again. But later in the day, he broke his vows and was at his usual Tudun Wada joint.

Goskolo is presently causing havoc in Plateau State and unlike other popular local alcoholic drinks, such as burukutu or pito, people claimed goskolo is more dangerous, because it contains both ethanol found in other alcoholic drinks and methanol which is a chemical known to be dangerous to the human body. It is the same methanol that experts claim is the main ingredient for making embalmment fluids along with ethanol and formaldehyde.

Investigations reveal that average non-users of goskolo in Plateau State claim that the drink is usually mixed with chemicals used on corpses. Friday Ephraim said during a recent rally by non-users of the gin and other harmful substances on Rukuba road described goskolo as “a chemical mixture used in preserving dead bodies.”

When in 2007 Governor Jonah Jang, on assumption of office launched a campaign against the heavy consumption of alcohol and restricted the activities of bars and beer parlours in the state, many especially youths and women greeted the restriction with negative feelings. The Gbong Gwom Jos, Da Jacob Gyang had also in February this year blamed women in the state who prepare local alcoholic drinks for being responsible for the insecurity in the state

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Goskolo -the deadly killer of Plateau youth