On August 28, a deeply unsettling TikTok livestream ignited a firestorm across Nigerian social media, sparking widespread anger and anxiety.
In the video, which quickly went viral, a woman using the handle Anyi_Anambra7, was heard boldly issuing a threat that sent shockwaves through the online community.
Her words, chilling in their precision, outlined a sinister plan to poison the food of Nigerians of Yoruba and Bini descent living in Canada.
The Yoruba, Nigeria’s second-largest ethnic group, and the Bini, an Edoid-speaking ethnic group indigenous to Edo State in the South-South geopolitical zone, suddenly found themselves at the heart of a malicious and dangerous online discourse.
The outburst stirred widespread fears, forcing many to confront the reality of rising ethnic hostilities that have leapt from localised tensions to international platforms, leaving the Nigerian diaspora on edge.
“Record me very, very well. It’s time to start poisoning the Yoruba and the Bini. Put poison for all una food for work,” the woman could be heard saying in a husky tone that left no doubt about her boiling rage.
Speaking mostly in Pidgin English, the woman, who later identified as a Nigerian-Canadian citizen, Amaka Sonnberger, also threatened to poison the water taken by her ethnic rivals at her workplace with lethal insecticides.
“Put poison for una water, make una dey kpai (die) one by one. Una no go kpai one day o, una go sick, sick, sick. I go put otapiapia (insecticide) for inside una water and food. Una no go see better. This kind hate wey una get for una so, e go last forever.
“If I go work tomorrow, I go put am (rodenticides) for Yoruba people food. Go tell the government, oya e dey Canada, e dey Ontario. Hurry up, fast fast!” the 46-year old who hails from Anambra State dared her listeners.
Sonnberger, who is of Igbo extraction, assured her audience of over 100 listeners on TikTok that news of mass deaths among Yoruba and Bini people would soon spread widely.
Inciting her audience, she further stated in the clip, which has now been viewed by over two million X (formerly Twitter) users, “I want make Ndigbo get that heart of wickedness. Una too dey quiet. Una too dey cool. Enough is enough! If you have a means of kpaing them, kpai them! They are of no use to the society.”
Amid condemnations from public figures and social media influencers, many who listened to the disturbing recording expressed their horror and disbelief.
Just a few hours after the video went viral, the Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, took to her X account to identify Sonnberger by name and shared her photo.
The House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Matters in a letter dated August 28, and jointly signed by its chairman, Tochukwu Okere, and the chairman of Nigeria-Canada Parliamentary Friendship Group, Biodun Omoleye, described Sonnberger’s remarks as “a direct threat to the lives and safety of millions of Nigerians.”
According to the lawmakers, the “incitement to violence and call for genocide through poisoning” are “deeply troubling and are a clear violation of international and Canadian laws such as national, racial, or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence.”
The legislators demanded that an “immediate and thorough investigation” be conducted into Sonnberger’s actions by Canadian law enforcement and appropriate authorities.
In a post on his X page, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, condemned the woman’s hateful remarks and urged citizens to “unite and focus” on addressing shared challenges, “rather than allowing tribalism and hate to tear us apart.”
“I have consistently stood against the polarisation of our country along tribal, religious or political lines. We, as Nigerians, must live together in peace and love,” Obi added.
The President of the Yoruba Council Worldwide, Oladotun Hassan, also described Sonneberger’s remarks as “a terroristic comment” adding that she “may be a dangerous ambassador to the vulnerable people she works with being a Nigerian-Canadian.”
In the aftermath of the viral clip, on September 1, Sonnberger was arrested “in a suspected hate-motivated threatening investigation” and charged with “uttering threats,” according to the Toronto Police website.
However, Sonnberger was released from custody after being questioned and has since resumed her activities on social media.
In an audio interview posted on YouTube by BattaBox on September 5, Sonnberger, while opting not to show her face for security reasons, explained that her threats were a reaction to hateful comments directed at Igbos on TikTok.
The 46-year-old explained that when she joined TikTok a few months ago, she was bombarded with anti-Igbo rhetoric on her ‘For You Page’ recommendations.
She added, “Every FYP I saw was always people talking about Igbos and these were the Bini and Yoruba to be particular. They said so many things and I have these things on video.
“They talk about how (Chukwuemeka) Ojukwu stole £5,000 from the bank during the (civil) war. So I joined these platforms and found out that the majority of these people there aren’t educated because as I’m going right, they are going left.
“Sometimes, I tried to debunk some of what they were saying. There was a time when they even said Igbos eat humans. They changed our history totally. There was a time I had to come back home and begin to search about my history because they say things that if you are not strong, will make you depressed.”
Sonnberger revealed that the most inflammatory comments she encountered on TikTok were attributed to one Kingsley, a Nigerian of Edo descent based in Austria.
In an audio recording from a TikTok livestream heard by our correspondent, a male voice believed to be Kingsley’s could be heard saying, “You have to receive my curse. Are you listening to me? You and all your Igbo generation, the biafrauds you shall perish.”
Accusing his Igbo rivals of sponsoring an intended protest, Kingsley added, “You shall all die, yes, you shall die. That River Niger, we shall bury you in it. If you start that your protest, you people will see what will happen. You people will die and nothing will happen.”
Joining in the conversation, a female voice who spoke in the Yoruba language lauded the activity of street hoodlums in Lagos in attacking the Igbo, who she said insulted them.
“You already gave me the name ndi ofe mmanu (people of oily soups) and I accepted it, but be thankful that (Babatunde) Fashola is no more the governor, otherwise, what he would show you, you won’t be able to bear it,” the lady said.
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, called upon the Federal Government to take immediate action against Kingsley, “for making inflammatory and dangerous statements threatening mass killings of Nigerians of Igbo extraction.”
In an interview posted on September 4, on X Dailly, Dabiri-Erewa said Sonnberger’s utterances were a reflection of who she was and not her ethnic group.
“Let’s not give a colouration to it because you are from this or that tribe. It’s petty. I’m too mature, exposed, cosmopolitan and sophisticated to judge people based on tribe or religion, it shouldn’t be an issue.
“If you do anything it’s because of who you are, not because of the tribe you come from. I want to preach unity, and then let’s watch what we say, you never know what can happen. Let’s be united. Crime has no tribe,” she maintained.
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