The British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, has said a story it ran last week about a restaurant in Anambra State, Nigeria, where human flesh is served as meat has been discovered to be false and inappropriate.
In the report, BBC had said suspicious residents in Anambra told police about rumours that the restaurant was serving cooked human flesh as meat to its customers.
It also said when police raided the restaurant, fresh human heads, still bleeding were discovered in a refrigerator just as blood found in the restaurant were in the process of being drained into a plastic bag before the arrival of cops.
The BBC has, however, issued an apology after public outcry especially from residents of Anambra State and the Nigeria Police, which denied the existence of any such restaurant in the state.
The corporation said it had already begun investigations to confirm what led to such publication and will take necessary steps to ensure such a mistake never occurs again.
“The story about the Nigerian restaurant which we published here frame a mistake and we apologize. It was incorrect and BBC published without the proper checks. We have removed the story and have launched an urgent investigation into how this happened”, BBC said.
It added that the BBC Burmese service’s reputation for accuracy and balance remains important.