The presidential town hall series organised by Daria Media Limited is on its third day. Rabiu Kwankwaso, Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and his running mate, Bishop Isaac Idahosa, are expected to appear on today’s show.
The series, tagged “The Candidates”, provides a platform for Nigerians to engage candidates on issues related to nation-building.
The town hall series, which started on Thursday, November 17 is planned to host six presidential and vice presidential candidates.
Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore and his running mate Haruna Magashi were on the show on Friday. At the same time, their counterpart in the Social Democratic Party, Adewole Adebayo and Yusuf Buhari, were interviewed on Thursday.
The series, anchored by Nigerian journalist, 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 fact-check reports are presented below:
Claim: NNPP Presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, claimed his government sponsored over 3,000 Kano residents to study in Nigeria and abroad In four years.
Finding
Sen. Kwankwaso had made a similar claim in a Daily Trust and ThisDay newspapers in the past. He said that he sold his properties to sponsor 3,000 Kano residents in local and international institutions. However, there is no official record or source to verify this information independently.
Verdict: Insufficient evidence
Source: Daily Trust, ThisDay
Date: 19/11/2022
Claim 2
Claim: NNPP Presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, claimed that he never borrowed money when he was governor of Kano state.
Finding
Multiple media reports confirmed that Kwankwaso borrowed N4.1 billion from pensioners’ funds to build Bandirawo and Amana Housing Estates. In a Vanguard report in 2021, the former Kano governor was probed by the EFCC for allegedly mismanaging N10bn pension remittances between 2011 and 2015.
Verdict: Incorrect
Source: Premium Times, Vanguard Newspaper
Date: 19/11/2022
Claim 3
Claim: NNPP presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, claimed that he didn’t leave debt behind in his two terms in office as the governor of Kano state.
Finding
Kwankwaso was the governor of Kano State between 1999-2003 and 2011-2015. According to data from the Debt Management Office, Kano state had a debt of 59.8 bn US dollars( $59,796,931.03) as of June 30, 2015, about a month after Kwankwaso left the office. Similarly, a report by Premium Times quoted the Kano state’s treasury department as saying Kwankwaso left over N200 billion in debt as a governor in 2015. No data was found yet on Kano’s debt profile when he left office in 2003.
Verdict: Incorrect
Source: DMO
Date: 19/11/2022
Very informative.
Please keep up the good work