Was a cannibal restaurant in Nigeria actually closed that had human heads on the menu?
We received inquiries about this article from 2014:

Cannibal restaurant 'with human heads on the menu' closed down
The fact check
According to colleagues at Snopes and David Puente , this is a mix of misinformation and sloppy reporting.
In 2014, some international online newspapers published, among others
- Mirror (“ Cops shut down restaurant for selling HUMAN flesh ,” February 12, 2014);
- Independent (“Cannibal restaurant 'with roasted human heads on the menu' shut down by police,” 12 February 2014);
- International Business Times (“Nigeria: Restaurant Served Roasted Human Heads,” February 7, 2014).
following article:
Police arrested 11 people and closed a restaurant after two human heads wrapped in cellophane were discovered at a hotel restaurant that had been serving human flesh.
A tip-off led police to the macabre discovery in Anambra, Nigeria, with 11 people being arrested and AK-47 guns and other weapons being seized.
Human flesh was apparently being sold as an expensive treat at the restaurant, with authorities saying that roasted human head was even on the menu.
“I went to the hotel early this year, after eating, I was told that a lump of meat was being sold at N700, I was surprised,” a pastor who had visited the eatery said.
“So I didn’t know it was human meat that I ate at such an expensive price.
“What is this country turning into? “Can you imagine people selling human flesh as meat,” he added. “Seriously I'm beginning to fear people in this part of the world. “
Another local added to the Osun Defender [*Editor's note: link is inactive] newspaper: “I always noticed funny movements in and out of the hotel; dirty people with dirty characters always come into the hotel.
“So, I was not surprised when the police made this discovery in the early hours of yesterday.”
The tabloid reported that two army caps, 40 rounds of live ammunition and 'so many cell phones' were also discovered by authorities.
So the article claims that police arrested 11 people after two human skulls were found "...in a hotel restaurant that served human meat." The meat was allegedly sold at a high price at the restaurant be.
Furthermore, AK-47s and other weapons are said to have been seized. There is also talk of a large number of cell phones.
What is interesting about the article is that there is no direct statement from the police and only a vegetable seller and a pastor, mind you without a name, have spoken out.
The pastor is said to have consumed the meat himself without knowing what meat it was.
The only truly transparent information relates to the place, which is named Anambra, Nigeria. A good starting point for more in-depth research.
Reputable source of origin?
A Nigerian tabloid is named as the source: Osun Defender. However, the website is currently no longer accessible. Through a chain, David Puente discovered the following blog, where you can see the article from August 4, 2013: Hotel Selling Cooked Human Meat Found In Onitsha As Police Arrests 11 With Fresh Human Heads
The article was already at least a year old before Western media picked up the story again. (see above)
Naijaloaded is given as the source of the blog entry. According to Puente, the site was owned by Makinde Azeez - also no longer available - and was opened as a forum in 2009 and later converted to a blog. His name can be found in the top 10 bloggers read in Nigeria.
However, countless comments could be found in which readers complained that the name of the hotel was not even mentioned, apart from the fact that it was a story from 2013.
Short Summary:
The article does not come from any obviously reputable source and can no longer be 100% verified. It is actually a hotel and not a restaurant where the skulls are said to have been found.
The story was recorded by various media more or less without reflection, including poor information about people, places and times. So there is no official statement that human flesh was actually consumed in a “hotel restaurant”.
So let's now address the question:
Were human skulls and weapons actually found in a Nigerian hotel? (Regardless of whether human flesh was consumed there or not.)
A search with these criteria in the Anambra area, Nigeria returns the following YouTube video:
In terms of time, this video matches the article and would therefore move the crime scene to the “Upper Class Hotel” in Onitsha, Anambra. This hotel was demolished shortly after it was found.
However, we are talking about 3 and not 2 skulls here. Weapons and cell phone finds correspond to the article.
There is also a video of the demolition with the description:
“Upper class hotel in Onitsha has been demolished by the state government via the 3 human (female) heads they found inside the room… Order by gov peter obi.”
In an article from December 29, 2013 , published by Vanguard, former hotel owner Bonaventure Mokwe reported a dispute over a parking space [*Editor's note: “motor park” = “motor home parking space”; Parking space for vehicles] with the residents of Onitsha.
According to Mokwe, the skulls and arms (“… skulls and arms…”) were intentionally placed in a room by third parties (“… business rivals”).
He was arrested for murder and his hotel was demolished. There was a long legal battle over the fact that the evidence found was not his.
There is also a detailed article about this on Ireport.cnn.com Here, however, we are again talking about two heads.
Result:
Some information got mixed up here. It is also difficult to understand which of this information has been reproduced truthfully and which has been added to it.
In any case, it should be clearly stated that the claim that human flesh was served in a hotel restaurant cannot be clearly substantiated. Especially not that there was/is a cannibal restaurant in Nigeria that had/has human flesh on the menu.
On the one hand, heads were found in a hotel in 2013, but on the other hand, there is no indication that the corresponding bodies were served to hotel guests.
David Puente puts it this way:
Reported facts are partly true (no sale of human flesh), wrongly widespread even by Nigerian media and turned into a fake (hotel changed to human-flesh-selling restaurant).
The facts reported are partly true (no sale of human flesh), even spread incorrectly by the Nigerian media and turned into a fake (the hotel became a restaurant selling human flesh).
[*Editor’s translation]
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

