Nigerians woke up to blog posts, and social media conversations alleging music superstar Burna Boy had been arrested after a neighbourhood fiasco.
Popular gossip site Linda Ikeji’s blog was the first known platform to publish the story, with a video alleged to have been recorded by witnesses. Other less-known platforms soon followed.
But the video, examined by Nigerian Entertainment Today does not clearly show the Grammy-nominated artiste. In the two minutes blurry clip, a man appears to be saying “They’ve carried his mobile police away. Ighalo lives here now, he doesn’t make noise… Let them carry him away.”.
We could not immediately confirm the identity of the person who recorded the video, nor was it clear who leaked it to media.
But it was not difficult for fans to believe Burna was guilty as charged; seeing as he has been the subject of multiple controversies in recent times. Many say he’s deliberate about courting controversies, in line with the image he is working to build.
‘It’s all getting messy, we just want him to give us good music and not be involved in drama all the time’, one fan wrote on Facebook.
But while Burna was already getting battered on social media, it emerged the whole story may have been a hoax. Our correspondent spoke with the spokesperson for Lagos Police, who insists nothing could be farther from the truth.
We spoke with DSP Bala Elkana on the phone around 12 pm. ‘I don’t want to confirm what I don’t know but I don’t have the information at all from any of our stations, he told us.
But when he called back at 3:50 pm, he had more information. In his words: ‘They just recycled an old story. There was something that happened a very long time ago and it was resolved then. It’s not a recent event… But we don’t have him in our custody. He wasn’t arrested yesterday, we don’t even have complaints against him from yesterday”.
He continues, ‘We don’t have such a case as reported online now. The reports online claim that he was arrested yesterday by our men but it’s not true. We don’t have such reports. That is my confirmation.’
We could not reach Burna Boy for comments, as his managers did not pick or return calls.
But yeah… what a mess.
