Foreign

Chinese intercepted 7,200 penis shipment from Nigeria is false—-AFP Fact Check.

A story making the rounds on social media about 7,200 harvested human penis shipments intercepted by Chinese Customs in China has been proven to be fallacious.

According to AFP Fact Check, the false story emanated from World News Daily Report ( WNDR), a satirical website known for its hoax stories.

“A story that has been shared multiple times on social media, including WhatsApp, claims that thousands of human penises shipped from Nigeria in a refrigerated container were intercepted in China.

” The claim is false; the story originated on a satirical website, and the accompanying photo was published in an article about a pangolin seizure in 2020.”

AFP fact check further revealed that the article was first published by World News Daily Report (WNDR) on March 19, 2021, according to data provided by social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle.

It has been shared nearly 700 times on Facebook and reposted by online news sites including Naija Tell, The Podium, Gbetu TV, Town Crier, and Sundiata Post.

“This article surfaced about a year after AFP Fact Check debunked a different story from the same satirical website, whose slogan is “facts don’t matter”.

AFP Fact Check found that the recent article from WNDR was shared online by several social media accounts known for promoting the activities of Nigeria’s separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The Biafra separatist group has been pushing for an independent state in southeastern Nigeria since 1970, which has resulted in repeated clashes with Nigeria’s security forces and heightened tensions in the region.

In the false Facebook post taken on April 12th,2021, the author of the fake Facebook account said:

“This is What Our Leader IPOB Mazi Nnamdi Kanu Was Saying….That Nigeria Security Agencies …Esp The DSS And SARS Arrest Our People, kill them and Harvest Their organs and Sell to Chinese…..(sic),”

reads the caption of a post on this Facebook account.

SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) is the disbanded Nigerian police unit accused of extrajudicial killings. DSS (Department of State Services) refers to Nigeria’s secret police.

“If there is any proof needed for this allegation…this is it….Security Agencies In Nigeria Esp SARS Unit Funded by the British Are Predators!” the caption continues.

WNDR’s story was also published on WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as on Twitter. Twitter user Savn Daniel previously shared a claim about the supply of French weapons to Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram that AFP Fact Check debunked.

This recent article has also circulated in other African countries, including Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“However, the entire story is fabricated”, the AFP Fact Check revealed.

The World News Daily Report is a satirical website, which it explains in a disclaimer in its “About Us” section.

The site assumes “all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content.”

In the disclaimer section of the satirical website, it says “all characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any persons, living, dead, or undead is purely a miracle.”

Although the photo used in the fictitious article was taken in China, it is unrelated to the story’s purported seizure.

AFP Fact Check ran a Bing reverse image search and found the picture in a 2020 report on the website of China’s customs agency. The report details a joint customs operations interception of 820 kilograms of pangolin scales that were smuggled into the country.

Screenshot of the website of Chinese customs, taken on April 12, 2021 states
“Customs seizes suspected smuggled pangolin scales at a logistics warehouse,” reads the Chinese caption of the photo translated into English.

Another reverse image search of the other image in the WNDR article led to a photo of four uniformed men that was published through stock photography agency Alamy on April 15, 2019.

“Vice Minister of the General Administration of Customs of China (GAC) Hu Wei (2nd L) speaks at a press conference in Beijing, capital of China, April 15, 2019,” reads the caption on the photo without identifying the other three people.

Furthermore, AFP’s journalist in Hong Kong confirmed that none of the names plaques in front of the four Chinese officials read “Li Wu”, who was identified as the customs spokesman in the satirical article.

As of April 13, 2021, the spokesman for the General Administration of Customs of China is Li Kuiwen, according to a Chinese state-owned Xinhua news agency.

The purported spokesman of Chinese Customs who made the revelation, Li Wu, does not exist.

Facts about World News Daily Report(WNDR)

World News Daily Report (WNDR) is a satirical fake news website purporting to be an American Jewish Zionist newspaper based in Tel Aviv and dedicated to covering biblical archeology news and other mysteries around the Globe.

It is headquartered in Quebec, Canada.

The site, which was launched in November 2023, is run by Canadians Janick Murray-Hall and Olivier Legault and follows the old-school tabloid-style faux-journalism of its predecessors, such as the Weekly World News.

Snopes.com reports that the website perpetrates hoaxes and rumors to prey on credulous readers.

The website combines religious and scientific fakery, political conspiracy theories, and “the occasional seed of truth” to create its false reports.

The Washington Post describes the World News Daily Report as a website that “delights in inventing items about foreigners, often Muslims, having sex with or killing animals”

The website carries this disclaimer: “WNDR assumes however all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website even those based on real people are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any persons, living, dead, or undead is purely a miracle.”

The editors of the satirical website have said of the site, the “site was intended to encourage self-criticism, but it is people’s fault if they wanted to believe fake stories.

“The people who take it seriously are people who want to take it seriously. It’s stupid to say, but… We preach to converts. The majority of people who share it understand that it’s a joke, and others share it because they want to believe it, not because they really believe in it… You can invent everything and anything and people will believe it.

“Honestly, it’s a little disturbing when you realise that. As long as you confirm what they want to believe, they will share it. If you go against their opinion, they will immediately think that this is false news. But if you go in the direction of their opinion, they will share it right away. They lose their critical spirit.”

“our main goal is to have fun with this medium, but we still want to get a message through. It is a criticism of sensationalism in the media”

Foreign

David Nwamini, Ekweremadu accuser, seeks asylum in UK

” they will kill me if I come to Nigeria” — he pleads to court

The eyewitness reporter

David Nwamini, the accuser of Senator Ike Ekweremadu who sent the lawmaker to 10 years jail term in the United Kingdom over an organ trafficking case, has raised an alarm that he may be killed in Nigeria if he comes back.

Consequently, he has asked the court to allow him to stay back in the UK for safety reasons.

“They would arrest me and kill me in Nigeria” he reportedly told the court.

His impact statement was read in court, at the sentencing that saw Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice, 56, and the doctor-middleman, Obinna Obeta, 51, jailed, for 10 years and 8 months, 4 years and six months, and 10 years, respectively.

The three were found guilty at the Old Bailey of conspiring to arrange the travel of a young man with a view to exploiting him for his body part.

The Ekweremadus’ 25-year-old daughter, Sonia, has a severe kidney disease. It was for her the donor was sourced and brought to the UK.

According to David, he was approached with an opportunity to work in the UK, which he had always dreamed of but never thought would happen.

“He (Dr Obina Obeta) did not tell me he brought me here for this reason. He did not tell me anything about this.

“I would have not agreed to any of this. My body is not for sale.

“I worry for my safety in Nigeria. Those people can do anything. I think they could arrest me or kill me in Nigeria.

“My plan now is to work and to get an education and to play football,” David said, adding that he does not want to claim compensation from the “bad people” as it would be “cursed and bad luck”.

He also said someone visited his father in Nigeria and asked the father to get him to drop the case.

Although it is lawful to donate a kidney, it becomes criminal if there is a reward.

The Ekweremadus were arrested on June 21 last year as they arrived at Heathrow Airport.

Foreign

UK court shuns Nigeria, ECOWAS pleas as it sentences Ekweremadu to 10 years imprisonment for organ trafficking

The eyewitness reporter

The United Kingdom court on Friday sentenced former Deputy Senate President of Nigeria, Ike Ekweremadu, to nine years and eight months in prison for organ trafficking plot.

This was despite the plea for clemency made by the Nigerian government and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that the court should temper justice with mercy.

The court also sentenced his wife, Beatrice, to four years six months while the medical doctor, who act as a ‘middleman’ in the plot, Dr Obinna Obeta, was sentenced to 10 years and his medical licence was also suspended.

The Ekweremadus’ daughter Sonia, who has a serious kidney condition, wept as she was cleared of the same charge.

Mr Justice Johnson told the defendants: “In each of your cases the offence you committed is so serious that neither a fine nor a community sentence can be justified.”

It was alleged that the 21-year-old street trader was to be rewarded for donating the organ to Sonia Ekweremadu, in an £80,000 private procedure at London’s Royal Free Hospital.

The case marked the first-time defendants have been convicted under the Modern Slavery Act of an organ harvesting conspiracy.

While it is lawful to donate a kidney, it becomes criminal if money or another material advantage is rewarded.

The prosecution claimed the donor was offered up to £7,000 along with the promise of a better life in the UK.

The donor did not understand until his first appointment with a consultant at the hospital that he was there for a kidney transplant, the Old Bailey was told

On March 23, the jury pronounced a guilty verdict on the senator, his wife, Beatrice, and Obinna Obeta, a doctor who acted as the middleman.

The jury held that they conspired to bring the 21-year-old at the centre of the matter to London to exploit him for his kidney.

Foreign

Nigeria missing as UNCTAD lists top African countries in service exports.

The Eyewitness reporter

Nigeria was not listed among the top five countries in Africa in service exports in 2021 as Egypt tops the list as announced by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in December.

According to the report, Egypt topped African countries regarding services exports in 2021 by around $20 billion

Egypt has also come second in maritime routes in Africa in the third quarter (Q3) of 2022.

According to the report, Egypt has achieved a considerable growth in services exports by 45.5 percent year-on-year in 2021.

Morocco followed Egypt in services exports then Ghana, South Africa, and Ethiopia.

Egypt also came third on the list of the top five countries regarding goods exports in Africa in 2021 by around $40 billion, achieving growth of around 60 percent year-on-year.

In maritime routes, Egypt was preceded by Morocco, South Africa, then Ghana, and Togo.

Earlier this month, Egypt announced a plan to develop Egyptian commodity exports to African countries to reach $15 billion during the coming few years.

Egypt’s exports to Africa have increased by 25.4 percent during Q1 2022 compared to Q1 2021, the Cabinet said in a statement in mid-December.

According to Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt’s exports to the African Union countries have reached more than $5.4 billion in 2021 compared to around $3.9 billion in 2020.

Libya, Sudan, Morocco, Algeria, and Kenya received more than 60 percent of Egyptian exports, according to CAPMAS.