ON March 1, 2024, an X user, @FirstObidient posted a video showing Eric Umeofia, the CEO and President of Erisco Foods Limited with a claim that he threatened to kill the embattled Chioma Okoli who criticized one of its products last year.
It would be recalled that on September 17, 2023, Ms Okoli posted on her Facebook profile that she purchased a tin of Nagiko Tomato paste and discovered that the product contained “too much’’ sugar.
Replying to a comment on Facebook, she insinuated that the product was killing consumers due to its amount of sugar.
Erisco Foods released a statement describing her allegations as untrue, and she was subsequently arrested, a move condemned by Nigerians, who described it as intimidation.
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) also waded into the case and summoned Erisco following the arrest.
Days later, Okoli was arrested by men of the Nigeria Police Force in Lagos and transferred to Abuja following a petition by Umeofia. Both parties have been in court since then.
The issue attracted public attention recently when she had another interview with Arise TV on February 25, 2024.
The post by the X user, @FirstObidient, read:
“This is the CEO of ERISCO threatening to k!ll Chioma Okoli over a bad review! Is there any other thing she did that I’m not aware of?? What kind of country is this?????”
The post has generated more than 400,000 views, over 2,800 reposts, over 500 comments and more than 3,000 likes as of March 3, 2024.
CLAIM
The president of Erisco Food Limited threatens to kill Chioma Okoli.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.

Checks by this researcher show that the X post by the claimant did not align with the context of the video.
The full version of the video posted by Arise News TV on September 28, 2023, indicated that it was an interview the TV station had with Eric Umeofia, the CEO and President of Erisco Foods Limited.
In the 25-minute-long video, Umeofia said Erisco Foods Limited file a suit of N5 billion against Okoli if she failed to retract her statement and apologize via her Facebook profile publicly. However, there was no point in the video where he threatened to kill the Ms Okoli.
Rather, he was saying Okoli posted that Erisco products are killing people and they were taking her to court to defend themselves against her allegation.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the president of Erisco Food Limited threatened to kill Chioma Okoli during an interview with Arise TV is MISLEADING; findings show the X post does not correlate with the context of the video, as he did not threaten Okoli during the interview held in September 2023.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
But he has sued her for $3.5 million USD.
So one could argue that he is seeking financial death, much like the hyperbolic comment about his gross tomato paste killing people with sugar