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  • 2019-05-02 (xsd:date)
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  • No, this boy was not buried alive behind the walls of a church (en)
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  • Thousands of Facebook users have shared photos which purportedly show a 12-year-old boy who was buried alive behind the walls of a church. In fact, the boy was not buried alive -- the pictures show a boy who fell into a gap between a house and a wall in Ondo State, Nigeria, back in 2016. The pictures, posted by a Facebook page named Ghana in Africa, have been shared more than 6,700 times (we’ve archived the post here ). The post claims that the boy was placed behind the walls alive, buried alive behind the walls, used as a foundation for a church building. Screenshot taken on May 2, 2019, of a Facebook post claiming to show a boy buried in church walls The pictures were also shared on Twitter by more than 350 people alongside the same caption. Screenshot taken on May 2, 2019, of a tweet claiming to show a boy buried in church walls But Google reverse image searches led to articles by the Daily Mail and Metro UK from 2016 which told a different story. Contrary to the claim that the boy was found after being buried alive in the foundations of a church, the British newspapers reported that the boy was miraculously rescued after three days in the tiny gap between a house and a wall. There was no mention of a church in the articles. The newspapers named the child as Aduragbemi Saka, believed to be 12 years old at the time. We ran multiple online queries including the name, which led us to a Channels TV video , taken at the location of the incident and published a few days before the British articles. According to the video, the boy became trapped after falling into the gap behind the wall on Akinfemisoye Street in the Oduduwa Area of New Town, Ondo State, Nigeria. A resident says she believes the boy fell into the gap after running away from his grandmother. There is no suggestion in the video that the child was deliberately buried alive. The only reference to a church in the video comes towards the end of the news report, when it mentions that the boy had been taken to a church in the neighbourhood for spiritual deliverance. Channels TV’s full report on the incident cited the prophetess of the church as saying she believed the boy ran away from his grandmother after the ceremony, which is when he fell in the gap between the two buildings. Aduragbemi was rescued by police and residents, and according to the Channels TV report he and his grandmother left their home after the rescue. We’ve been unable to find any further information on the boy’s whereabouts, but we can certainly say that posts about him being buried alive behind the walls of a church are misleading. (en)
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