Claim
A self-acclaimed Biafra leader, Simon Ekpa, and another X user have shared a video of horrific ritual killings in Nigeria’s Southwest and claimed it happened recently.
Verdict
A simple keyword Google search showed that this incident happened in 2014. Credible news reports also confirmed it.
Full Text
On 3rd November 2024, Simon Ekpa, a controversial Biafra agitator, shared a video of horrific ritual killings in Nigeria’s Southwest and claimed it happened recently.
Mr Ekpa, based in Finland, heads Autopilot, a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
IPOB is a separatist group agitating for the creation of an independent state of Biafra from southeast and some parts of south-south Nigeria.
The two regions are usually called “Biafra” or sometimes “Biafra land” by IPOB and other separatist groups in the area.
Mr Ekpa, a Nigerian-Finnish citizen, often addresses himself as the Prime Minister of the Biafra Republic Government In-Exile (BRGIE).
In his words, Mr Ekpa claimed that the Afonja (Yoruba) ritualists are more concerned about the coming of Biafra but this is what is happening in their backyard.
The post by Mr Ekpa generated over 50l views, more than 2k reposts, and 2.750k likes, according to X analytics.
Another X user, Alex Igwe, posted this same video and wrote, “This was discovered in Ibadan, over 200 human skulls and body parts. This is a crime against the human race and purely genocide, Nigeria. Government, why now”.
In a continuous tribal war online recently, some ethnic bigots from southeast and southwest Nigeria always publish heinous content, whether old or recent, to ridicule each other’s tribe.
Verification
However, when this Fact Checker subjected the keywords from the video, “Survivors are responding to treatment at Adeoyo hospital in Ibadan“, into Google search, credible news reports by reputable news organizations in Nigeria, confirmed that this incident happened in March 2014.
The video being circulated by Simon Ekpa as a recent incident was a cut out from the original clip shared by TVC in 2014.
Watch the original video in 2014 by TVC here.
In a report by BBC in 2014, Nigerian police opened a murder investigation after human skeletons and body parts were discovered in an abandoned building in the south-west.
Officers also rescued several people nearby who had been chained together and appeared severely malnourished.
The alarm had been raised by motorcycle taxi riders in the city of Ibadan after some of their colleagues went missing.
Several people have been arrested in the city – Nigeria’s third largest – a police spokeswoman said.
Check similar publications that support this evidence here and here.
Also, in a recent statement on 4th November 2024, the Oyo State Government cautioned against some old videos about kidnappers’ dens in Ibadan, the state capital, being re-circulated by mischief makers as recent ones.
In a statement signed by Sulaimon Olanrewaju, Special Adviser (Media) to Oyo State Governor, the state government explained that “these videos are not recent because the incidents they depict happened in 2014 and 2019. They should, therefore, be discountenanced.
Conclusion
This video shared by Mr Ekpa as a recent one is MISLEADING.
A keyword search and credible report confirmed that the incident occurred in 2014.
Credit: FactWatch
