Claim: A post by Joe Igbokwe, a chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), shows a breakdown of votes reportedly scored by the former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, in each state at the just concluded presidential primary.
The claim is false. The election was a secret ballot and votes were not tallied according to states.
Full Text
Following the emergence of Bola Tinubu as the flagbearer of APC for the 2023 presidential election, some social media users including a chieftain of APC in Lagos State have been circulating data to depict how delegates from each state voted for the former Lagos State governor.
Mr Tinubu during the primary polled 1271 votes to clinch the ticket ahead of former minister of transportation Rotimi Amaechi, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Ahmad Lawan and other candidates.
In the spirit of victory, some of Mr Tinubu’s supporters shared data to show the percentage of votes the former governor got from delegates from each state.
A screenshot of the purported data of how delegates voted for Tinubu
The data which was broken into the six geopolitical zones had different states with different percentages of votes.
While some users believe the data to be genuine, others questioned Mr Igbokwe’s source, prompting DUBAWA to fact-check.
Verification
DUBAWA discovered that only elected national and Ad-hoc delegates were qualified to vote at the National convention. A total of 2, 260 delegates were accredited for the election.
One of the video clips of the election obtained by DUBAWA showed that the delegates cast their votes in any of the 40 ballot boxes made available at the convention ground.
Screenshot of Ballot boxes at the APC convention ground
DUBAWA observed that none of the ballot boxes were dedicated to any state; hence it is difficult to determine the delegates that voted for each candidate.
It was also observed that the election was a secret ballot where delegates were allowed to choose their preferred candidate without others knowing.
Cambridge dictionary defines secret ballot “as a method of voting in which each person writes their choice on a piece of paper so that no one else knows how they have voted.”
A close observation of the video of the voting exercise for the APC presidential primary shows that it is impossible to determine the percentage of people that voted for Tinubu in each state because the delegates were dropping their votes secretly in different ballots boxes.
Conclusion
The post showing a breakdown of how delegates in each state voted for Bola Tinubu is false. DUBAWA discovered that the election was a secret ballot and votes were not tallied on a state-by-state basis.
Claim: A video circulating on social media, especially on WhatsApp suggests that northern governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) visited Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday, shortly after the emergence of Bola Tinubu as the APC presidential candidate.
The claim is misleading. DUBAWA discovered that the event took place early this year during a condolence visit to the family of Dahiru Mangal, a business magnate in Katsina.
Full Text
Barely 24 hours after Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State, emerged as the flagbearer of the ruling APC, some social media users started circulating a video suggesting that northern governors met with PDP candidate, Abubakar Atiku.
A screenshot of the acclaimed video
In the 29 seconds video, Atiku was captured in a room with the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, Yobe State Governor, Maimala Buni, Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari and Jigawa State Governor, Mohammed Badaru, among others.
The text that accompanied the video alleged conspiracy against Mr Tinubu by the northern APC leaders following his emergence as the party’s flagbearer.
The video was captioned: “Northern APC governors and Senate President went to visit Atiku. These are people that just handed the ticket of their party to Bola Tinubu and in less than 24 hours they are flocking together with the flag bearer of an opposition party.
“If this is not a conspiracy then tell me what it is. They collected all his dollar, gave him ticket and turned their backs immediately 🤔😅. We are just being played for fools!”
DUBAWA observed that some Nigerians believed the video, as someone who reacted to it on a Whatsapp group insisted that many northern leaders will dump APC for PDP.
Screenshot of reaction to the Video
Verification
DUBAWA conducted a frame by frame analysis of the video on the InVid Video verification tool. Results from the analysis show that the earliest version of the video first surfaced on the internet on 22nd January 2022 when Atiku paid a condolence visit to the family of Dahiru Mangal, a business magnate in Katsina, who lost his 85-year-old mother.
Dahiru Mangal is the Chairman of Afdin Group, owners of Max Air, Afdin Petroleum, Afdin Construction, among others.
Further checks by DUBAWA led to a tweet by the PDP presidential candidate posted on his verified Twitter handle on the condolence visit to the Katsina business magnate.
Screenshot of a tweet by the former Vice President on his condolence visit to the Katsina Business magnate
The tweet read, “Earlier today (January 22), I paid a condolence visit to Alhaji Dahiru Mangal in Katsina over the loss of his beloved mother and matriarch of their family, Hajiya Murja Bara’u. I pray that Almighty Allah will comfort the family and grant her Aljannah Firdaus in Paradise.”
Close observation by DUBAWA shows that images in the pictures correlate with shots from the video. All persons in the video are dressed just as depicted in the images.
Conclusion
The post alleging that APC northern governors visited Atiku after the emergence of Bola Tinubu as the APC presidential candidate is misleading. DUBAWA discovered that the event took place early this year during a condolence visit to the family of Dahiru Mangal, a businessman in Katsina.
Claim: A campus news Facebook page, Campus Catch NG, has a claim that the Federal Government said it would attend to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) after the National All Progressive Congress’ convention.
False. No media platform reported the supposed statement from the Federal Government. The report was only shared by a few pages on Facebook with no primary source of information.
Full Text:
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) recently extended its initial one-month warning strike, adding two months. The Union and the Federal Government have been in the news since the commencement of the strike.
Since the extension, ASUU and the federal government have been trending on social media platforms. As such, different claims and inferences have been made on the issue.
Recently, Campus Catch NG posted on Facebook that the Federal Government of Nigeria says it will attend ASUU after the APC National Convention.
Enejor O. Samuel, a follower of the page, expressed his dissatisfaction with the supposed news.
“Na lie… This is very untrue na…make una no finish this party na,” he said.
We could only find pages sharing the supposed statement from the Federal Government. No media house has reported the supposed statement. Where and when the statement was made is nonexistent. Hence, the claim is false.
Claim: A post on Nairaland claims a police DIG and AIG assigned for the Anambra elections have both resigned from the assignment. The post details that: “A Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Joseph Egbunike and Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) deployed to Anambra State for Saturday’s governorship election have resigned from the assignment.”
Verification: Phone calls placed to the police PRO, Frank Mba, were not responded to. However, according to latest reports from Vanguard and independent the police PRO has confirmed that there was no resignation, DIG Joseph Egbunike was only replaced with AIG Zaki Ahmed to lead the security for the Anambra gubernatorial elections.
Claim: A video shared by a Twitter user, @Real_Amakalke, and many others depicts a rigging galore, allegedly perpetrated by election officials in Anambra.
Verification: Although the location of the footage could not be determined, analysis of the video on InVid video verifier showed it first appeared an hour ago on this YouTube page, “BiafraUplift” and generally not too long ago online. The footage was neither doctored nor altered in any way. As such, the event in the video is recent.
Claim: A Facebook page, Gtv-Freedom News Page, posted two images at 10:45a.m., claiming that unknown gunmen are attacking and killing soldiers and police officers in Anambra.
Verification: While the first image is from a September 28th report by BBC Igbo, the other image has been used several times in the past to accompany reports relating to hoodlums, unknown gunmen, Bandits e.t.c. No Premium Times/PTCIJ observer or any credible media platform reported such a case. Also, the Anambra Commissioner of Police, Echeng Echeng, dismissed the claim as fake news when contacted.
Claim: A user on Twitter, BiafraBreakingNews, claims polling units in Onitsha remain empty with Zero voter turnout.
Verification: Abdulazeez Abbas, a Premium times reporter in Onitsha clarifies that the low voter turnout is only at the newly established polling units in the area. He explains that the prevalent issue is the general malfunction with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVS) not the low voter turnout.
Claim: Valentine Ozigbo, Anambra PDP gubernatorial candidate, said INEC is no longer using incident form.
Verification: According to reports by Premium times and Tribune, INEC has abolished the use of incident forms since 2019. The incident form is a report to the elections board about any irregularity or unusual happening such as failure of poll workers to appear on time, voter’s name not on the roster, or general issues with election tools.
Claim: Reports on ChampionsNews and DailyPost claim the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) Chidozie Nwankwo has stepped down for PDP’s Valentine Ozigbo.
Verification: Dr. Leonard Nzenwa, the National Chairman of the African Action Congress (AAC) dispelled the claim. He described the news as “fake” and a means to demoralise the party’s stands in the elections. The chairman said Mr. Chidozie is fully in the race and has not dropped for Valentine Ozigbo.
Claim: A user on Twitter, @Afrimediaa, claimsthat ‘unidentified armed men’ have invaded Aguata LGA, Immaculate Heart Ekwulobia; attacked party agents, electoral officers and made away with election materials and that voting has been cancelled.
Verification: An observer with the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism, Adesola Ikulaloju, who is currently at Aguata, confirmed that the news is not true. He added that voters are still on queue and voting is still ongoing with no threats at the moment.
Claim: A Twitter user @hardynwa claims INEC has extended voting by an hour and that voting will continue on Sunday.
Verification: AnambraINEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Nkwachukwu Orji, in a statement earlier extended voting time to 4:00pm due to accreditation issues.
Also, a recent report by Premium Times noted that the REC in a press briefing extended voting to Sunday.
Claim: A viral image claims the APC chairman Anambra state, Chief Basil Ejidike, collapsed after losing his local government to PDP and APGA in ongoing gubernatorial elections in Anambra.
Verification: A Yandex reverse image search of the acclaimed picture of the fainted APC chairman, showed the image first appeared online in 2017 and since then, it has been satirised with diverse narratives attached to it and has appeared also on different platforms such as tori.ng and wowplus.net amongst many others since 2017.
Claim: A user on Facebook, Ada Biafra shared a statement titled “US Statement on the Upcoming Anambra Elections” which detailed potential sanctions Nigeria would face if the Anambra Elections does not go well.
Verification: The “statement” did not appear or feature on any credible news sites. Also, the statement did not carry any signatory (like most statements do) or direct reference to it. In fact, the link attached to it was that of a YouTube video broadcasting recent happenings in Anambra.
Claim: A post by Anambra Breaking News NG on Facebook claims APC is heading to victory and leads in 7 local government areas in Anambra state.
Verification: Latest reports on election results by Premium times and ThisDay shows it is APGA’s Charles Soludu who is leading with 6 Local Government Areas so far and not APC’s Andy Uba. No reports anywhere, aside from the claim in question, that suggest APC is leading in Anambra with 7 LGAs.
In preparation for the election, INEC has said 86 out of the 5,720 Polling Units (PU) in the state have no voters, hence no personnel or material will be distributed to those PUs.
This tension was heightened by the sit-at-home protest from November 5 to November 10, 2021, declared by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). This protest has however been cancelled.
Also, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba, has warned non-state actors, including the IPOB to steer clear of Saturday’s election in Anambra State.
In view of the election, Dubawa, here, introduces some of the candidates.
APC candidate- Andy Uba
Emmanuel Nnamdi Uba also known as Andy Uba, is a politician who once served as the Special Assistant on Special Duties and Domestic Affairs to President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He is also not new to the governorship race, having contested the 2007 election in which he was declared winner but the election was challenged in court by Peter Obi.
His administration was eventually truncated.
Andy Uba has also served two terms in the Senate (2011 and 2015) representing Anambra South Senatorial district.
The 62-year-old will be contesting this election alongside his running mate, Chkwuememeka Stephen Okafor, who is 57-year-old.
Anidst all these,, the Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed December 20 to deliver judgement in a suit by George Moghalu, an aspirant in the APC primary election.
PDP candidate – Valentine Ozigbo
Valentine Ozigbo is a politician and businessman with over 17 years of experience in the banking sector. He has worked with NAL Merchant Bank, Diamond Bank, Continental Trust Bank, FSB International Bank, Standard Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa and Bank PHB.
He has served as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria-based hospitality company, Transcorp Hotels Plc.
He is also the immediate past President and Chief Executive Officer of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria plc (Transcorp) from 2019-2020.
Chukwuma Charles Soludo, is a professor and politician who has been active in the academia, politics and the business world.
He has worked with the World Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, European Union (EU), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); United Nations (UN), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), African Development Bank (ADB), African Union (AU), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) among many others.
In the Academia, Soludo had served at the IMF and also taught the IMF’s Financial Programming and Policy course to senior staff of Central Banks in West Africa and other developing regions. He has similarly served as Member, Technical Committees that drafted economic and trade policies for the Federal Government of Nigeria; and Executive Director of the African Institute for Applied Economics (AlAE).
In 2003 he served the Federal Government of Nigeria as the Economic Adviser to President Obasanjo and the Chief Executive of the National Planning Commission (NPC) among many other responsibilities.
60-year-old Soludo alongside his running mate, Ibezim Onyekachi Gilbert (age 45), emerged as APGA’s candidate in June with 740 votes.
However, they were in July removed from INEC’s list of cleared candidates in recognition of an order by the High Court of Jigawa State, questioning the legality of the emergence of the duo and of the party’s leadership that produced them.
The stage is set for three governorship candidates vying for the governorship position in Anambra state to debate ahead of the election.
The three aspirants; Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are on stage to field questions from Arise Crew during the debate.
The debate is supported by Enough-is-Enough Nigeria (EiE Nigeria) and is being broadcast live on the ARISE NEWS Channel, the Anambra Broadcasting Service Radio and TV and the Ogene FM.
Dubawa and Premium Times are monitoring the debate for live fact-checks to ensure accuracy of claims.
Yes, Soludo won Best Governor of the Central Bank thrice
Claim 1: Charles Soludo claims he was three times winner of the best governor of the Central bank award.
Verification
The Central Bank’s document on Soludo’s service indicates that he has won the Global and African Central Bank Governor of the Year, in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Different international media institutions, including The Banker Magazine published by the Financial Times of London, gave him the awards.
True, Anambra has lowest unemployment rate in Nigeria
Claim 2: Charles Soludo (APGA) said Anambra State has the lowest unemployment rate at 17% per cent.
Verification
According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Anambra State has the lowest unemployment rate, with 17% in the second quarter of 2020.
True, Ngige, not Obiano enacted the Vigilante Act
Claim 3: Charles Soludo (APGA) said the vigilante act was not enacted during Obiano’s government.
Verification
According to a report by real-world and Amnesty International, the Anambra State House of Assembly enacted the Anambra State Vigilante Group law in 2004, under Chris Ngige PDP-led government. The vigilante act was enacted to give private groups the right to prevent crime in the state.
Abati, not Soludo, is right about Anambra unemployment rate
Claim 4: Rueben Abati, one of the anchors of the debate said the unemployment rate is at 44% but Charles Soludo, APGA’s candidate, contradicted this saying it is at 13%.
Although Rueben insisted he was quoting a data source which he did not name, Soludo countered his claim with that of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
“…and you have the unemployment rate of 44% and if you add underemployment to that, you have 60.7%,” Abati said.
Abati is right having quoted unemployment data for Q4 2020 which is the latest released by NBS
Verification
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) unemployment data for the second quarter (Q2) of 2020 shows Anambra State’ unemployment is at 13.1%. However, that of the fourth quarter (Q4), which is the latest, puts the percentage at 44.22.
True, state governments don’t grant tax concessions to companies
Claim 5: Charles Soludo (APGA) claims State Governments do not have the power to give tax concessions to companies.
Verification
State governments do not have the power to give tax concessions or incentives. According to tax summaries, the Federal Inland Revenue Services, under the federal government, gives incentives and concessions to companies.
Soludo’s claim on COVID-19 confirmed cases true
Claim 6: Soludo (APGA) said there are over 2,000 COVID-19 confirmed cases in Anambra
Claim 7: APGA’s candidate, Charles Soludo, claims Anambra state has one of the lowest, if not the lowest death rate in the country.
Verification
Our findings show this is not true as Anambra state’s death rate which is 19 is not the lowest t but could be counted as one of the lowest. There are 4 other states with lower figures NCDC’s data show – Jigawa’s death rate is 17, Kebbi has 16, Zamfara has 8 and Kogi has 2.
No separate data on Anambra’s primary, secondary school enrolment data
Claim 8: Charles Soludo (APGA) said 65% of Anambra State primary and secondary school enrolment is private.
No supporting data
Verification
Officialstatisticsfrom the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) on public and private schools released in 2018, which is the latest, didn’t give a breakdown of private and public school enrollment.
Insufficient evidence on COVID-19 vaccination in Anambra
Claim 9: Charles Soludo (APGA) said over 92,000 vaccinations have been administered in Anambra.
Verification
Data by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) as at June 2021, shows 33,503 persons have received their first dose of the vaccine in Anambra state. No recent data to show the current vaccination figure.
UBEC data shows Anambra out-of-school children over 90,000
Claim 10: Ngozi Alaegbu, who co-anchored the debate, said Anambra state has 90,000 out of school children.
Verification
According to data gleaned from the 2018 digest of basic education statistics by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), which is the latest, Anambra state houses 118, 314 out of school children. Which is about 15 per cent of the state population within 6-11 years old. A google search revealed that Miss Alaegbu based her claim of 90,000 out of school in Anambra state on the word of a researcher and not from the data from the education board.
True, Ozigbo clinched Best CEO Award as claimed
Claim 11: Valentine Ozigbo (PDP), claims he was once awarded the best CEO award of the year.
Verification
According to the seven stars luxury hospitality and lifestyle awards, Ozigbo won the 2016 Seven Stars awards as CEO of the year.
Soludo’s claim Anambra’s general hospitals are only ones offering vaccines false
Claim 12: Anambra is the only state where a general hospital is administering vaccines.
Verification
A search on the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) website shows general hospitals in other states provide vaccines. Also, some persons who have received the vaccines confirmed they got their vaccine from general hospitals.
EDITOR’s NOTE: Claims 4 and 10 have been updated to reflect new revelation which faulted our earlier fact-checks.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has slated November 6th for the highly anticipated 2021 Anambra election. While this move was definitive, the primary elections conducted by some political parties saw an avalanche of discord that challenged the legitimacy of the candidates that emerged.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), considered the major political parties contesting in the elections have had varied degrees of friction over the authenticity of the gubernatorial candidates to represent their parties.
Nonetheless, this is not the only significant thing around the Anambra Elections. Below are some occurrences you probably don’t know about the Anambra polity.
A drop in Female contestants; a rise of younger candidates
Out of the 18 contestants confirmed by INEC for the 2021 Anambra governorship elections, only two of candidates contesting for the governorship position are women. This is a striking decline compared to the previous 2017 elections when five women contested for the post. Also, only five women are contesting as candidates for the deputy governorship post. This is a decline from a total of eight women that contested for the post in 2017.
APC has Male-Male running candidates. While INEC is yet to release the names of candidates for the PDP because of ongoing discord within the party. Out of the major political parties contesting in the elections, apparently only APGA has a woman for the position of deputy governor.
Out of all the candidates screened and confirmed by INEC, the youngest candidate is Ekene Alex Nwankwo, at 36 years old while at 62 years old, Senator Andy Uba is the oldest candidate for the 2021 Anambra State Governorship race. The list of candidates is shown below:
Source: INEC
Electoral/Political Chaos
For persons familiar with the polity of Anambra State, issues trending around the primary elections are not novel and surprising at all. In fact, Anambra State is the only state that has had five governors under contentious cases from 1999 to 2007, including a governor who only served for 14 days.
In 2007, Andy Uba won the Anambra state Governorship election and was sworn in on May 27, 2007. However, barely 14 days after he was sworn in, Uba was removed from office on the orders of the Supreme court. This swift change of events reinstated Peter Obi, who was then the incumbent Governor of the state. This occurrence made Obi the first governor in the state to win two terms.
Again, Virginia Etiaba was appointed Governor of the state on November 3, 2006 when Peter Obi, was impeached by the state legislature for alleged gross misconduct. Etiaba, served for only 3 months before handing back the mantle to Obi after an appeal court nullified the impeachment.
Hence, the electoral and political chaos in Anambra is not new as it is still one of the few states in the country where more than two parties are major. APGA, PDP, YPP, APC all stand a chance.
The Anambra elections has come under threat
In the 2017 Anambra elections, the Nigerian Police deployed about 26,000 police officers to prepare for the gubernatorial elections. This number of deployed security officers was almost four-times the initial number of the police in the state (5,000).
The deployment was not only to ensure that the forthcoming election was free and fair, but to clasp the threat posed by The Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB) who had threatened to disrupt the 2017 gubernatorial elections by conducting rallies and protests against the elections.
In fact, on a Friday, November 10, 2017, a week to the elections, the group marched around some streets in Onitsha, Anambra State, chanting threats: “if you vote you will die. Don’t go out, stay in your house.” The group announced its intention to stop the elections and also impose a lock-down on the day of the elections.
Though the 2021 gubernatorial elections are not far off, and Nnamdi Kanu, the IPOB leader, is under security incarceration, the Anambra gubernatorial elections may still attract security forces even more than before, particularly because of the low voter turnout in the last 2017 Anambra elections that has been linked by analysts to the threat spread by IPOB before the elections.
Conclusion
It’s less than 4 months to the 2021 Anambra gubernatorial elections and INEC has reinstated its commitment to making sure the elections live up to expectations. However, issues around the Party primaries conducted ahead of Anambra governorship elections appear to be a tradition. According to CDD, since the return to democracy in 1999 in Anambra State and Nigeria in general, there is hardly a time of absence of court cases after governorship party primaries to challenge outcomes of primaries. This reality places voters in a dilemma and hardly gives them time to get to know who earns their votes.
Claim: a certain web-based message making the rounds on different social media platforms claims Tinubu is offering Nigerians 19,800 Naira as part of a support grant.
The Claim
The claim that Tinubu is offering Nigerians 19,800 Naira as part of a support grant is false. The associated website is confirmed as fake, a typical one used by charlatans to defraud unsuspecting members of the public. Hence, this claim is false.
Full Text
A serious threat on Social Media is that misinformation spreads faster than credible news. At the click of a button, users share information on health, politics, volunteer opportunities, jobs, businesses and all manner of things. A typical example is the message making rounds on social media asking people to follow a link to receive ₦19,800 from the Tinubu organization.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is a foremost Nigerian politician; two-term former Governor of Lagos State, and current national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) whose dominant status in the Nigerian society is perhaps why the acclaimed link was widely spread on WhatsApp groups.
In one group where the link was shared, one member commented that “I am sure Tinubu is sharing this money to boost his 2023 presidential aspirations” while another member rendered that “this is a scam, Tinubu is not giving out any money.”
Whatever the case may be, DUBAWA conducted multiple similar fact checks on typical links offering financial grants in the guise of prominent persons. In one case that was fact checked, the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar was also said to give out grants, but like all former related claims, DUBAWA confirmed it to be a ruse.
Fraudulent websites are quite common and this sort of scams are often attempts by scammers to pretend to be trustworthy companies or organisations in order to get personal information from victims. Previously, it has been easier to identify fraudulent websites but scammers have now upgraded their tactics. As a result, DUBAWA opts to investigate the alleged link and the message in question.
Verification
As juicy and inviting as the claim appears to be, there is no official statement from Bola Ahmed Tinubu that backs it up or media reports that suggest its validity.
An analysis with Domainbigdata, a web tool used to verify a website ownership, revealed that the website has been reported several times for abuses, attacks, and malware.
Results of the analysis carried out on Domainbigdata
Even more, the website in question was forcefully redirecting users to another site that appears to be for betting. This is a typical scheme by ‘malvertiziters’ to illicitly boost traffic to websites by forcing users to visit them.
Another alarming reality noticed with the acclaimed website was the dummy testimonial comments it displayed. This is a typical strategy used by online scammers to lure prospective victims into their den. Another clear-red flag is the disparity between the amount of money pledged and the one outlined by the alleged testifiers (screenshot below). While the alleged grant offered 19, 800 Naira, others presented testimonies of N100, 000. This contradiction signals a shady complot.
A screenshot extracted from the acclaimed website, depicting the dummy comments of testifiers and the contradiction with the said amount
DUBUWA also noticed that the acclaimed link is a ‘Bitly URL’. Bitly URL is a shortening service and a link management platform that was established in 2008. It is privately held and based in New York City. Bitly shortens over 600 million links per month, for use in social networking, SMS, and email. While the motive behind its creation is to help entrepreneurs to easily share their links on social media, attract customers and sell their product or services, charlatans are now using it negatively to maladvertize, and draw traction to websites that offer no services at all.
The acclaimed link under scrutiny is a Bitly URL
According to Pandasecurity Bitly URLs are dangerous and people should be wary of them. “Anyone who randomly scans bit.ly URLs will find thousands of unlocked OneDrive folders and can modify existing files in them or upload arbitrary content, potentially including malware. This way of distributing malware is worrisome because it is both quick and effective.”
A typical scheme by online scammers is to lure online users with false juicy offers to draw illicit traction to a site
Evidenty, the points rendered proved true, as the alleged website demands users to share further to other users before accessing the said grant as seen in the screenshot above. This is a typical tactic used by scammers to draw traction to websites
Apparently, Tinubu is not offering a grant, and the acclaimed website is a scam. Based on the analysis carried out:
Fake website: key indicators
One key indicator of a genuine website would be the small padlock symbol next to the website address on the address bar. The small padlock indicates that the website is secured by an TLS/SSL certificate that encrypts user data making the connection secure. It is easy to obtain an SSL certificate and scammers have taken advantage of this fact.
The security padlock evident on the acclaimed site
One page website
It is not unusual to have a single page website; some organizations use them to make it easier to navigate their content. All information is usually contained on the page including contact information and relevant information pertaining to the organization. The website in question does not have the contact information about the organization and the links on the website are redirected to a betting site. The process of redirecting links is known as deceptive redirection and is often quite common with spammers and fraudsters.
Asking for personal information
Although many websites ask for some personal information one has to be careful with the information they provide online. Your personal information can be used to steal your identity and commit fraud. There is no website with full safety and privacy, so one has to be very careful while sharing any personal information.
The acclaimed website requesting user information
Using a similar name for the genuine website
To confuse people, fraudsters often use website names and URLs that are similar to websites they are trying to mimic.
The real website to Tinubu’s Foundation
Bola Tinubu’s organization holds the name Bola Tinubu Support Organization while the fraudulent website is Bola Tinubu Support Organization Support funds.
How can you protect yourself from fraudulent websites?
Run site through a website checker
When in doubt, use a website checker to verify if a website is secure. A secure website check can let you know any vulnerabilities on the site, if it is using encryption and what level of verification a site has.
Look out for trust indicators on a website
Trust indicators or signals are elements that are often displayed on websites that help users feel more secure and are proof of a business’ conduct or trustworthiness. The most common indicators are:
A privacy policy
A return policy
Contact information for the business or organization, like a phone number and address
Correct spelling and grammar
Online reviews (simply Google “reviews for [site name]” to find online feedback)
While genuine websites may not have trust indicators, most of them do. However, you should be careful and skeptical of sites that do not have these indicators.
Do not provide sensitive information
If you receive a link to a fraudulent site, do not provide any sensitive information like your name and contact information. Additionally, do not repost or share the links to minimize the spread of misinformation.
Report Fraudulent Website
You can also do something about Fraudulent websites. The Internet Crime Complaint Center or Google Safe Browsing are designed to deal with fake websites. To make submissions, you can easily copy the URL to the fake website and submit it to any of the above mentioned platforms. The process is easy and the results are usually timely.
Conclusion
As findings show, Bola Ahmed Tinibu, or any of his organisations, is not offering N19,800 as grants. This scheme is perpetrated by online scammers to lure and extort from unsuspecting members of the public.
Claim: PDP claims Nigeria is disqualified by WHO from the list of nations to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
The information provided by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that Nigeria is disqualified by WHO from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine is not true. The WHO communications officer confirmed the information as false.
Full text
The novel COVID-19 pandemic came with an overpowering novelty that even advanced nations were overwhelmed by its pressing flanks. Even experts in virology seemed to have flunked out of ideas at the early stage of the pandemic. However, so much improvement was subsequently made especially in discovering precautionary ways to curtail the spread of the virus and the development of a vaccine.
This improvement, primarily as regards the actualization of a COVID-19 vaccine, has within the past months steered multiple news reports on how countries will acquire the COVID-19 vaccine. In January 2021, Governor Kayode Fayemi, head of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, said “Nigeria is among 12 countries in Africa that have indicated the readiness of the 92 qualified countries for the facility and will by the end of February 2021 receive its first shipment of vaccines,” Fayemi said.
However, a recent claim seems to dispute Mr. Fayemi’s assertions. On Twitter, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a strong opposition party to the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), claims Nigeria is disqualified by WHO from the list of nations to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The claimants affirmed that the incidence was due to the inability of President Buhari’s administration to provide a simple storage facility for the vaccine.
The claim was tweeted as a thread alongside a version of the same tweet in a press statement copy.
PDP’s press statement containing details about the claim
The outlined message in the press release and the tweet boils down to the acclaimed failure of the present government to provide a COVID-19 storage facility. However, Yusuf Yunusa(@yyunusa) inquired that “Who is the handler of these fake news spreaders?” While also implying that the information is false. DUBAWA examined multiple information about COVID-19 vaccines that both had an element of truth and lie. However, one thing that is apparent is the ability of such information to garner people’s attention and if false, easily mislead them. This situation encouraged DUBAWA to uncover the truth in this information.
Verification
DUBAWA reached out to Kate Ribet, Communications Officer COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout, WHO Regional Office for Africa who replied via an email. On the question of WHO’s disqualification of Nigeria for the COVID-19 vaccine, she clarified that “WHO has not disqualified any country in Africa from accessing COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX facility, but rather the organisation is supporting all countries to access vaccines as quickly as possible.
Currently, all countries on the continent are expected to start accessing the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines by the end of February. The vaccine is under review by WHO for Emergency Use Listing and the outcome is expected soon.
Of the 88 million AstraZeneca doses allocated to African countries for the first phase, Nigeria has received by far the largest allocation, with 16 million doses.”
She further explained:
“In addition to the Astra Zeneca doses, there is an initial limited volume of Pfizer vaccine available through COVAX. Demand for the initial allocation of 1.2 million Pfizer doses was exceptionally high. COVAX received interest from 72 countries around the world, of which 51 countries were considered by the review committee as “ready” (Nigeria was among these countries) and 18 countries in total were finally chosen to receive initial Pfizer doses. On the Africa continent, as of the 18 January deadline, COVAX received 13 submissions, of which 9 were recommended as ready to deploy the Pfizer vaccine and the list includes Nigeria.
Regarding the delay in supply of the vaccine to Nigeria, she said:
“Unfortunately, it was not feasible to provide each of these 51 countries with Pfizer doses, due to a number of factors including the limited capacity for Pfizer to handle many countries at once. Therefore, spreading the limited doses across all the 51 countries deemed ‘ready’ could not have achieved the intended public health benefit. After epidemiological self-financing to account, the decision was taken to proportionally balance the number of self-financing and AMC Participants, as well as Participants across all 6 WHO regions.”
Her response indicates that Nigeria is not disqualified from countries that will receive the COVID-19 vaccine and in fact, the country is only waiting for its turn.
Conclusion
The information provided by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that Nigeria is disqualified by WHO from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine is not true. The World Health Organization’s communications officer confirmed the information as false.
CLAIM: INEC presiding officers made confession on electronic transmission of 2019 presidential election results.
VERDICT: TRUE! But report is from April 2019.
FULL STORY
On Sunday, November 29, 2020, news blogs reported there is a victory for 2019 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, following revelation by some staff members of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The news report which appeared here, here, here claimed that 13 presiding officers engaged by INEC said they transmitted results of the February 23, 2019 election electronically against the position of the commission.
It stated further that the presiding officers made the statements at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Abuja.
One of the reports was headlined: “Massive Victory For Atiku As INEC Staff Makes Powerful Confession That May Vindicate Him.”
The post here also featured a 5:31 minutes video which analysed the report from another news platform.
It reads: “About 13 Presiding Officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Borno and Yobe States, have told the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Abuja, that they transmitted the results of the February 23, Presidential election in their various units and wards, to the official server of INEC.
“The position of the presiding officers, however, contradicted the submission of INEC, who had earlier stated in its reply to the petition, that the results were never sent to its server.
“This could go a long way in vindicating Atiku if proved to be true. What do you think? Is this the end for Buhari?”
Some of the comments on the report showed that the readers not only believed the report as a fresh one, they also analysed and passed comments on their thoughts on the case.
One of the readers, Kampala Pender said: “They should just forget that, as the judgment will always be twisted even with millions of evidence, I advise Atiku to focus on future.” (sic)
Bright Miebi commented, “please we should forget about that before there will be war in Nigeria.”
HappyMan wrote: “Good news but hungry people in power will not allow it to scale through. From onset they knew who really won but was twisted.”
Ologunde Evng Abraham queried “truth is always constant but who will take care of it?”
While some few other comments cast aspersions on the persons of Atiku and Buhari, a reader, Prince Olaniyan Toba, asked if the information is “fresh news or old.” He, however, did not get answers from those who dropped comments.
VERIFICATION
Key phrase search of the report showed that it had been published by mainstream media about 21 months ago.
The report came following assertions by INEC that it did not transmit the 2019 election results electronically.
More so, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which the report referenced had completed its duties more than a year ago and has since been dissolved.
Unsatisfied with the judgement of the tribunal, Atiku and the PDP approached the Supreme Court which dismissed the petition on October 30, 2019 while upholding Buhari’s election as president of Nigeria for another term of four years which will end in 2023.
CONCLUSION
Even though the content of the report is true, it is coming about 21 months late. Clear evidence showed that the report was re-invented from 2019 and the elections petition tribunal has since 2019 completed its duties.
The researcher produced this fact-check per the Dubawa 2020 Fellowship partnership with TribuneOnlineng to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.
