On Wednesday afternoon, Ebuka Chiemeka, an X user, shared a photo of a man holding a human head and alleged that the man was a Yoruba man named Adekunle.

In the caption accompanying the photo, Chiemeka implied that the beheaded man met his tragic end sometime in 2023.

His initial claim reads: “Behold Adekunle, the winner of the 2023/2024 skull mining competition. It was [a] keenly contested competition. Congratulations, more heads Adekunle.”

While responding to one of the comments on the post Chiemeka wrote, “He won the last year’s Yoruba skull mining competition. Hopefully, he will win again next year and break the record that Bola kept. More heads to Adekunle.“

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FIJ observed that this X user shared the image with that caption to exploit the prevailing ethnic tension on social media.

The post had attracted over 239,000 views, 318 quotes, 602 retweets, 1,400 likes and 146 bookmarks on Thursday.

While reacting to the claim, @Abdul_A_Bello wrote, “Some Yorubas are so notorious in using people’s head[s] for rituals… Are these rituals really working for those who are deeply indulg[ing] in such demonic practice? This is 2024 for goodness sake!”

@LODWAVE2 also wrote, “This kind [of] story always comes from Ogun. I don’t know the kind breed (Canibal) those state has.”

@Laykay0808 equally wrote, “Government should do something about these ritúälïşts! Igbo lives matter!”

VERIFICATION

When a Google Reverse Image Search was carried out on the picture, FIJ found that the image first surfaced online in July 2015.

A 2015 publication by Beth News Media featuring the same photo shows that the man holding the head was arrested by the police in Benue State.

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Idoma Voice, a news website, also published the picture alongside a report on July 13, 2015. According to Idoma Voice, the arrested man was a farmer named Raphael Agazi, who beheaded another farmer. This picture shows him holding up the deceased’s head in his hand like a trophy.

Agazi and the deceased, later identified as Ajah Asim, were fighting over a piece of land when the former beheaded the latter, buried his half body in a grave in the disputed land and fled, Idoma Voice reported.

It was also revealed that both farmers were natives of Benue State. News reports from July 2015 by The Nation, Vanguard and Pulse, which corroborate Idoma Voice’s publication, can be found here, here, and here.

VERDICT

As against the insinuation that the viral photo is recent, FIJ found that it made it to the news for the first time in 2015.

The claim that the human head is being held by a Yoruba man in the picture is also false. Chiemeka’s claim is misleading.