Alleged video of father poisoning his sons over prophecy dates back to 2019

Claim: Facebook users shared clips of a man recently apprehended for poisoning his sons after a pastor prophesied to him that they were wizards. 

Verdict: Misleading. While the incident did happen, the excerpt was from an old TVC news report in 2019, not 2025 as claimed.

Full Text

Nigeria is slowly becoming a place where unspeakable crimes are committed. One of the recent issues that made various headlines is the case of three men who a magistrate court in Enugu remanded for allegedly kidnapping and murdering young victims in Eseagu Local Government Area. The police report detailed that the suspects abducted multiple individuals and murdered some teenagers. 

Although news platforms covered this, Facebook users shared updates of the event here, here, and here. 

Amidst this trend, a Facebook user @Teju Olaoye shared a three-minute, 14-second video claiming a man poisoned his children because of a prophecy. 

The post’s caption reads, “Father poisons his three sons because a pastor in Bayelsa told him they are wizards. Two died and one survived.” 

The video, which appears to be a news broadcast, provides the details in the caption. The suspect, who was apprehended, is seen narrating the incident to the media.

“My pastor pronounced in the church that I have some children and I’m not married to their mother again. Their mother has bewitched all my children to tarnish my family’s life,” the suspect said. 

The report revealed that the father tied up his sons and forced them to drink a dangerous insecticide, which led to the death of two of the boys, while one survived.

When the post was seen on Aug. 7, 2025, it had 500 views, 26 comments, 50 likes, and one share.

Although the Facebook user did not explicitly state that the incident was recent, the caption and video made it seem that way. This was clear from the comments, such as @Mariam Mustapha, who wrote: “I heard it over the radio this morning ooo,” and @Olayinka Fagbemiro, who replied: “Why was the pastor not in cuffs too? Until they start jailing some of these criminals in cassocks, we won’t stop seeing madness like this one.”

We observed that the post was also shared across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Other posts can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

The sensitive nature of the allegation, its virality across platforms, and potential to stir online outrage prompted us to verify the claim.

Verification 

DUBAWA conducted a keyword search that led to a more extended version of the video on YouTube. TVC News shared the video on Jan. 3, 2019. 

The report aligns with the claim regarding what and where the incident happened, but not the when. The suspect, identified as Samel Otasi, a 42-year-old man, admitted to the alleged crime. He said he was not ready to let the prophecy his pastor gave come to life, so he acted on it by ending their lives.  

His eldest son, who survived the incident, was also shown on a hospital bed narrating how he escaped after his father tied him and shoved the insecticide down his throat and that of his siblings.

We also found other news reports here, here, here, and here that confirmed the incident happened in 2019, not 2025. 

In addition to our inquiry, we searched for similar recent events that could have triggered the recirculation but found nothing.

Conclusion 

DUBAWA’s findings revealed that the incident happened in 2019, not 2025. The video is being recycled in 2025, so the claim is misleading.