That 2015 story about a Nigerian restaurant serving human flesh was a hoax

In May 2015, a shocking story raced around the world: police in Anambra State, Nigeria, had supposedly shut down a restaurant for serving human flesh, finding bags of still-bleeding heads in the kitchen. A local priest, the story went, had been billed 700 Naira for a meal and was told the price was high because he had been served human meat. The police had supposedly found grenades and arrested ten people.

There was just one problem. None of it was true.

The story began as a BBC Swahili report and was picked up by international outlets including the Daily Mail. But the Anambra State Police Command publicly debunked it. State police spokesperson Uche Eze said: "There was nothing like that. I advise you to ignore that report. It's not true and it did not happen. We don't have such record."

The BBC retracted the story and apologized: "The story about the Nigerian restaurant which we published here was a mistake and we apologise. It was incorrect and published without the proper BBC checks. We have removed the story and have launched an urgent investigation into how this happened." The Daily Mail also removed its article and acknowledged the story was false.

We published this story when it broke, as the original report presented it. We were wrong to present it as fact, and this article now stands corrected: the most-shared headline is sometimes the least-checked one.

Sources: BellaNaija, NaijaGists