Over the last week, Alt News has received several requests on it’s Android application to fact-check an image which sources BBC and cautions people to not have Cadbury products as they are “contaminated with HIV (AIDS).”

The text on the viral image states, “This is the guy who added his infected blood to Cadbury products. For the next few week do no eat any products from Cadbury, as a worker from the company has added his blood contaminated with HIV (AIDS). It was shown yesterday on BBC News. Please forward this message to people who you care.”

Old hoax

Alt News first searched the terms “Cadbury” and “hiv” on BBC’s website. No results turned up thus hinting that the supposed news was not carried by the international media outlet.

Next, we cropped the image of the man being arrested and performed a Google reverse image search. This redirected us to Nigerian news sites Information Nigeria, CKN Nigeria and Nairaland that identified the man as Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, the alleged mastermind of the Nyanya bus station bombing of 2014.

As per the BBC’s report, more than seventy people had died in the attack.

Boom had debunked this misinformation earlier. The fact-checking organisation confirmed with a spokesperson from Mondelez (India), the company that makes Cadbury chocolate bars, who said, “The post you refer to is a hoax and there is no truth in it. It’s fake news. The person whose photograph is shown in the post has never worked /does not work for Mondelez. False and baseless posts like these are damaging for well-respected and loved brands. We call upon our consumers to please verify facts related to Mondelez products before sharing them further.”

A photograph from Nigeria is doing the rounds on social media with the false claim that an HIV positive man contaminated Cadbury products with his blood. The same image was also shared to falsely claim that Pepsi was infected with the virus.