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Some of the fellows of the 2025 Kwame Karikari fact-checking and Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) fellowship were celebrated with awards in different categories for their excellence during the three-month fellowship.
The Centre for Journalism, Innovation and Development (CJID)’s fact-checking project, DUBAWA, and the Digital Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Information Disorder Analysis Centre (DAIDAC), earlier in the year, selected and trained 40 journalists across West Africa to combat information disorder through fact-checking and media literacy.
On Wednesday, November 26, 2025, DUBAWA, during the CJID Excellence in Journalism awards, recognised outstanding fellows.
DUBAWA’s editor (Ghana), Nathan Gadugah, said that the structure for the fellowship changed this year with the addition of Francophone countries and Open Source Intelligence (OSINT).
“We have also added the French component to it as well. So for three months, we had a rigorous and comprehensive fellowship programme where we provided training and experience, as well as mentorship in issues that had to do with OSINT,” Nathan stated.
Nathan said the fact checks shortlisted were judged based on certain criteria, including story relevance, societal impact, qualitative writing, innovation, and depth of research.
For the “Best Fellow” category award, he stated that it was judged based on prompt reporting, meeting monthly targets, and active participation in the fellowship’s goals.
The Best Fact-Check category, Abdullai Tijani, Managing Editor of the Liberalist in Nigeria, won for Anglophone countries with his report on how “Misleading Headlines on Nigerian Import Ban fuel Misinformation.” While Senior Journalist Caleb Ahinakwa of Asaase Radio, Accra, Ghana, was the first runner-up in the category for his report, “Telegram scam targets Ghanaian users via phishing sites.”
For Francophone countries, Hubert-Armand Assin won with his article titled, “Faux, le Mali n’a jamais acquis d’avions de chasse russes Su-35,” which examined authentic images of Malian fighter jets that were taken out of context.
For the Best OSINT category, Mohammed Lawal won for Anglophone countries with his eye-opening report, “REVEALED: The AES shadow game fueling anti-ECOWAS, anti-Western disinformation across West Africa.” Dare Akogun, the Managing Editor and Publisher of DA News, was the runner-up in the category via his story “African Hub: How X page, promotes military, other misinformation, under guise of Pan Africanism.”
For the Francophone countries, Abdoul-Khader Coulibaly won with his report, which utilised Fotoforensics and Hive Moderation to demonstrate that a video showing Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara making controversial statements contains deep manipulation. Ayoba Faye, who conducted a meticulous investigation into a viral video claiming to show a “convoy of Guineans” intercepted by Senegalese authorities, was first runner-up.
The Overall Best Fellow for the fellowship was jointly awarded to Yahaya Massawudu, a journalist based in the Northern Region of Ghana, and Glory Ugonma Itiafe, a dynamic broadcast journalist with Diamond 88.5FM in Osun State, Nigeria.
