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Claim: A Facebook user by name J Howard Mattaldi alleged in a post he made in a private group (Fries FM) that Mr. Dorr Cooper, Inspector General at Commerce Ministry, was not listed amongst graduates of the University of Liberia 104 Convocation even though he had joined other candidates for the occasion.
Verdict: True! The University of Liberia 104th Commencement Convocation graduation booklet obtained by this Researcher shows that Inspector Dorr Cooper wasn’t listed for graduation.
Full Text
A viral post of Commerce Inspector Dorr Cooper circulated on Facebook Sept. 18, 2024 during the graduation and convocation of the State-run University of Liberia. According to the posts, the Inspector had gone to the ceremony ground in his graduation gown and with support from family and friends, hoping to earn a Degree that day. But a Facebook user, J Howard Mattaldi Jr., alleged on Facebook that the Government official’s name was not on the list of graduates from the College of Public Administration.
“Liberia Commerce Inspector General D. Dorr Cooper escaped UL graduation after confirming he wasn’t on the list,” the poster said.
Screenshot of the post below
The posts generated 166 comments and 154 reactions at the time of this writeup. Persons who commented argued that the claim was fake and only intended to tarnish the Official’s reputation.
Screenshot of comments
The claim was also posted by Shine Liberia blog and social media users. The trendy nature of the post and mixed reactions to the claim led DUBAWA to initiate a fact-check.
Verification
DUBAWA decided to acquire the official booklet of the graduation in order to authenticate the names on the list. Our Researcher obtained the 104th Commencement Convocation booklet of the University possessing all the names of candidates that graduated from the College of Public Administration. After a thorough search in the booklet particularly under Public Administration, the name Dorr Cooper wasn’t found. This shows that the Inspector wasn’t listed for graduation as expected by him and his family.
Screenshot of Public Administration Graduates listing below
The researcher further contacted Inspector Dorr Cooper via his official Messenger account to understand the circumstances under which he attended a graduation ceremony with his family when he was not on the list of graduands. However, the Inspector didn’t respond to our inquiries even though the messages were delivered to him as indicated by messenger.
Screenshot of messages below
DUBAWA did not get a response for this.
Meanwhile, DUBAWA contacted the Chairman of Public Administration Department at the University of Liberia Mr. Arthur B Sharpe via telephone to find out whether Inspector Cooper was eligible for graduation and given clearance by the university as expected. In response Chairman Sharpe told DUBAWA that Inspector Cooper wasn’t given clearance for graduation by the University of Liberia on the basis that all the information he (Dorr Cooper) presented to the Department for verification were fake. According to the Chairman, the school records show that Dorr only sat a single course since his entry into the school and failed the course.
“Before graduation, I obtained information on the students for verification before the issuing of clearance and every information this fellow called Dorr Cooper provided was fake. The University did not give him clearance from the record I have,” Chairman Sharpe said.
Conclusion
Based on DUBAWA’s findings, it is true the Inspector wasn’t listed for graduation because he wasn’t cleared by the University for graduation. .
