CLAIM: A viral Whatsapp message claims that thunder kills 23 cows in Ekiti state
CONCLUSION: Yes, Thunder did kill 23 Cows in Ekiti state but that was in 2018! Meanwhile, the wrong picture was used to describe the incident.
FULL TEXT:
On the 20th of June 2019, a screenshot of a news credited to the online news platform, Dailypostng, was widely circulated on WhatsApp, saying thunder kills 23 cows in Ekiti state.
Our investigations revealed that the thunder attack was actually true but the incident occurred in October 2, 2018, and it was reported by major Nigerian newspapers like PremiumTimes and Dailypostng.
Also, a quick reverse image check on the picture attached to the content of the post shows that it first appeared online in 2017 when Cbsnews reported that: “Lightening strike kills 32 cows in Missouri”.
It is very important that readers and social media users take note that some stale news are often recycled and that some photos unrelated to a news at hand may be attached, hence why people must always try to check the date any news first surfaced online and conduct a first level google image search to know the narrative behind any picture attached to a story.