Ahead of the February 25 general election, Daria Media Limited has kicked off a presidential town hall series tagged “The Candidates.”
The town hall meeting is a conversation series in which Nigerians would hear from the candidates and ask them questions on nation-building and other issues.
The series, which will run from Thursday, November 17 to Sunday, November 20, 2022, kicks off featuring the presidential and vice presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adewole Adebayo and Yusuf Buhari.
According to the organisers, six presidential and vice presidential candidates out of the 18 presidential candidates will participate in the town hall series.
The series, anchored by Kadaria Ahmed, is supported by the MacArthur Foundation, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), and YouTube.
As a member of the Nigerian Fact-checkers’ Coalition (NCF), DUBAWA will be involved in live fact-checking of claims made by the candidates.
Claims made by the candidates and their fact-checks are presented below:
Claim 1
Claim: Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adewole Adebayo, said 80% of Nigeria’s crude oil is being stolen.
Finding
Official figures from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), show Nigeria lost more than 115,000 barrels per day (bpd) to oil theft and vandalism between January 2021 and February 2022. That is less than 10% of the country’s regular daily production of about 1.5 million barrels daily.
Verdict: False
Source: Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, CBN
Date: March 2022
Claim 2
Claim: Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adewole Adebayo, said the counterpart health funding is not being paid by states in Nigeria.
Finding
In a news report in July 2022, a representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO), charged state governments across Nigeria to pay their counterpart funds to benefit from the global organisation’s support for health infrastructure.
Verdict: True
Source: ThisDay
Date: 17/11/2022
Claim: “I will put there [CBN] for the first time in a long time, an economist”, SDP candidate Adewole Adebayo said.
Finding
An extensive keyword search revealed that several economists had headed the apex bank. This includes current governor Godwin Emefiele and former governors Sanusi Lamido, Aliyu Mai Borno, and Clement Nyong Isong.
Verdict: False
Source: Infomedia, CBN and other sources.
Date: 17/11/2022
