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Ghana news site Ghana Web claimed a college student burned his hostel room while smoking marijuana.

Though the fire was actually caused by an electrical problem, the news site did not retract the story until ten days after publication. The site also apologized to the student, the hostel and the university, Valley View University, which is in Oyibi, Accra, Ghana.

iMediaEthics has written to Ghana Web and the university for more information.

The Ghana Web retraction reads:

“On November 5th, 2016 an article was published on GhanaWeb.com titled: “Valley view student burns down hostel room while smoking weed.”

“The article sort (sic) to report how a student of the school named above allegedly burnt his hostel and attributed the cause of this incident to weed smoking on the part of the student named as John Hermit.

“Recent findings have however shown that aspects of the publication were inaccurate.

“According to sources at the Grace A Dieu Hostel, a no-smoking policy is enforced in the hostel and as such students are prohibited from engaging in the act.

“He confirmed the student’s room got burnt but stated an electrical fault caused the fire, adding that spontaneous power fluctuations resulted in the burning up of the socket in the room which escalated.

“GhanaWeb unreservedly apologises to John Hermit, the management of Grace A Dieu Hostel and Valley View University for any harm done.”