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Claim: A Facebook user, Malik Malik Bah, posted photos claiming President Julius Maada Bio’s administration renovated and rebranded the East End Lions’ pitch.
Verdict: False! According to the Head of Administration for East End Lions, Idrissa Tigo, the newly renovated pitch was not made by President Bio’s administration but by the East End Lions Executive under the leadership of the club’s Chairperson, Amb. Anthony Navo Jr. There is no evidence to validate Malik Malik Bah’s claim.
Full Text
East End Lions, founded in 1928, is one of Sierra Leone’s biggest football clubs. It plays in the Leone Rock Premier League.
East End Lions, nicknamed the “Killers,” is based in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown.
In February 2024, East End Lions executives began renovating the popular Trade Centre Playing Field. The field, covered in dust and pebbles, was leased by the club from the Government Technical Institute, as reported by Sierra Loaded.
The club converted the dusty pitch into artificial turf to improve players’ playing conditions.
However, a Facebook user, Malik Malik Bah, posted photos claiming President Julius Maada Bio’s administration renovated the East End Lions’ pitch.
Part of the claim reads, “Take a look at the newly rebranded Trade Centre Field, which has been transformed to an ultramodern level under the leadership of President Bio.”
The claim was further translated from Krio as: “This place used to be a dusty pitch. And it has been the East End Lions’ home stadium for years. Finally, the Bio’s administration has rebranded it.”
The claim sparked reactions among social media users. Many followers dismissed the claim as false, while some believed it to be true.
Screenshots of the reactions by followers.
DUBAWA decided to fact-check the claim due to its mandate to amplify truth.
Verification
Firstly, DUBAWA conducted a Google keyword search to verify the authenticity of the claim. Still, there was no evidence linking the involvement of President Bio’s administration to the renovation of the East End Lions’ pitch.
As of February 2024, African Young Voices reported that the Chairperson of East End Lions, Anthony Navo Jr., had relayed that his executive was renovating the Trade Centre Field to ultra-modern artificial turf for the club. When we reviewed this News piece, no evidence validated Malik Malik Bah’s claim.
We conducted further searches on other credible news outlets, such as A-Z Media, Night Watch, and Politico SL, which had reported on the upgrade but did not link it to the government.
Our search also found that East End Lions is a private club not supported or controlled by the government of Sierra Leone. The club represents the eastern part of Freetown.
Further searches on the Sierra Leone Football Association’s official website did not reveal any evidence that President Bio’s government rebranded the East End Lions’ pitch.
DUBAWA then contacted Idrissa Tigo, the Head of Administration for East End Lions, to verify the claim. But he dismissed it as false.
“Everything was done by the East End Lions Executive led by Amb Anthony Navo Jr,” he told DUBAWA.
DUBAWA also contacted Malik Malik Bah on Facebook to provide evidence of his claim, but he did not respond.
Conclusion
Our investigation showed that Malik Malik Bah’s claim is false. No evidence supported Malik’s claim. The Head of Administration for East End Lions dismissed the claim as untrue.
