By Okechukwu Onuegbu
Claim: “Hotel Selling Cooked Human Meat Found In
Anambra State, Police Arrests 11 With Fresh Human Heads.”
Verdict: Fake
news! Anambra state police command did not arrest 11 people with cooked human
meat in Anambra!
Full text:
A social media posts
in circulation on WhatsApp and Facebook claimed that the Anambra state police
busted a hotel where human fresh is sold and arrested 11 persons in connection
with hat. It read thus;
“According to Osun Defender, Onitsha police
arrested 11 people after they discovered 2 fresh human heads in a hotel (name
withheld) very close to the popular Ose-Okwodu market in Anambra state on
Thursday. 2 AK47 rifles and other weapons were also discovered in the hotel.
The arrest followed tip-offs from area residents on Thursday morning. The hotel
owner, 6 women and 4 men were arrested. After police got access to the hotel,
they made a startling discovery of two human heads wrapped in a cellophane bag,
two AK47 rifles, two army caps, 40 rounds of live ammunition and so many cell
phones. "Each time I came to market, because the hotel is very close to
the market, I always noticed funny movements in and out of the hotel; dirty
people with dirty characters always come into the hotel. So, I was not
surprised when the police made this discovery in the early hours of
yesterday," said a vegetable seller in the area. A Pastor who was among
the people who tipped off the police on Thursday said: "I went to the
hotel early this year, after eating, I was told that a lump of meat was being
sold at N700, I was surprised. So I did not know it was human meat that I ate
at such expensive price."
Verification:
In order to ascertain
the veracity of this claim, we
embarked on the following tasks;
1.
We
searched through the internet to find out if it was based on an earlier report.
We found the reports had been on internet since 2013. Among the online
platforms where it was previously published is Osun Defender (already
deleted). But it is still available on jamaicanmateyangroupie, Naijaloaded and Informationng since 2014. It also appeared on other local
and international media.
2.
Later,
some of the national and international media fact-checked the claims and
dismissed it as fake news. See them on mimikama, Bulfale and snopes. The police equally dismissed the report as fake news in 2015.
3. We
further discovered that the report was a misinformation or misrepresentation of
the demolition of Upper
Class hotel Onitsha by the Anambra state government following
alleged discovery of human heads in the hotel. The demolition which happened in
2013 led
to arrest of the proprietor of the hotel, Mr Bonaventure Mokwe. In
2018, Mokwe reportedly defeated the Anambra state government on the court case
he filed at Onitsha
High Court to that effect.
4. Again,
we discovered that the current post is similar with those circulated or
published in 2013, 2014 and 2015. All failed to mention names of the hotel
where the human fresh was served, names of the culprits and those arrested, the
date the arrest was made, the particular police division that made the arrest, the
source/pastor quoted in the story and a confirmation from the state police
command.
5.
Similarly,
On October 19, 2019, the Anambra state police commissioner, CP John Abang through
the command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Haruna Muhammed refuted the claim as
well. His press release entitled “RE:
"HOTEL SELLING COOKED HUMAN MEAT FOUND IN ANAMBRA STATE, POLICE ARRESTS 11
WITH FRESH HUMAN HEADS" read thus;
-The report is absolutely false and unfounded. The attention of the
Anambra State Police Command has been drawn to online reports being circulated
in the social media on the above caption. The report is totally false and
unfounded, probably orchestrated by mischief makers who are trying to achieve
their selfish interests. The Command urges the Public to disregard such rumour.
Persons circulating this fake news are warned to desist forthwith as any one
apprehended will face severe legal consequences, please.
Conclusion: The claim that hotel selling cooked human
meat found in Anambra state, police arrests 11 with fresh human heads is fake
news extracted from already fact-checked and refuted fake news.
This report was factchecked by Okechukwu
Onuegbu
Tags
Factcheck