IN SHORT: In January 2019, a man was arrested for poisoning his three children after a pastor allegedly told him they were bewitched. Social media posts suggesting the incident occurred in July 2025 are misleading.
“He p0!soned his three children after his pastor claimed they were witches, only one survived,” reads part of the caption of a video circulating on social media since 7 July 2025.
The video features the logo of TVC News, a Nigerian news channel and has attracted thousands of views.
The voiceover of the reporter says: “Bound in cuffs, 42-year-old Samuel Otasi and a relative were at the police divisional headquarters, Igbogene, where he was detained for poisoning three of his sons after a prophecy that they were wizards.”
The video shows a man identified as “Samuel Otasi” talking to reporters outside the police station. According to him, a pastor told him that the mother of his children had bewitched them to “ruin their lives”.
Igbogene is a town in Bayelsa state in southern Nigeria.
The same video and claim were found here and here. (Note: See more instances at the end of this report.)
But did the incident occur in July 2025, as suggested online? We checked.
Incident from 2019
Using keywords from the video, Africa Check searched for such an incident on YouTube and Google.
We found that the video was posted on TVC’s YouTube page on 3 January 2019. Otasi was arrested for poisoning his sons with an insecticide.
We also found news articles about the same incident from 2019 here and here.
Contrary to the social media posts, the incident took place in 2019, not 2025.
More misleading posts can be found here, here, here, here and here.
For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false
A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?
Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.
Publishers guideAfrica Check teams up with Facebook
Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.
The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.
You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.
Add new comment