1. Christiano Ronaldo And The DSTV Saga
There was a widely circulated post claiming that DSTV has added Channel 240 for the Saudi Arabia league following Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to new club, Al-Nassr.
The report was written by Friday Omosola and published on January 5 2023.
This report became so controversial and we delved into the truth of the matter.
ROUNDCHECK found that the circulating posts on social media platforms claiming that DSTV had added Channel 240 as Saudi Arabia league following Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr was INCORRECT.
DStv debunked the claim a few hours after we published the fact-checking report on the claim. The satellite service replied to an earlier mail we sent to them that Saudi Arabia league is not on Channel 240.
Read the report here.
2. Imo Governorship Election
This report was titled ‘Imo Governorship Election: How Disinformation Actors Fuelled Violence With False Information’ written by Ijioma Caleb on 13 December, 2023 to counter some misleading contents that spread during Nigeria’s off-cycle election in 2023.
On November 11, 2023, off-cycle gubernatorial elections were held in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi states in Nigeria. These states are part of the eight states that have off-cycle governorship elections held outside of the general election timetable in the country.
However, in the buildup to the election, ROUNDCHECK observed different political actors used disinformation to fuel violence, especially in Imo state. ROUNDCHECK found all of the claims by these actors to be False and Misleading, thereby having a greater influence on the outcome of the Imo governorship election.
Read full report here
3. Dangote Cement Has Not Reduced Cement Prices
This report delved into debunking a claim that Dangote cement has reduced its price. The report was done by Egwu Linus on 18 October 2023.
ROUNDCHECK found that the viral claim spreading across Facebook and X that the producers of Dangote Cement have asked sellers of the product in the country to reduce the cement price from N5,500 to N2,700 is INCORRECT.
Read report here
4. Hilda Bacci Yet To Receive Guinness World Record Title
On May 16, 2023, a Twitter user with the account @TheHildaBaci made a tweet and posted the image of Hilda Bacci holding a Guinness World Record certificate.
The photo showed the Nigerian chef holding a Guinness World Records (GWR) certificate, a few days after she completed her longest cooking marathon by an individual.
The report was done by Zainab Adewale on 23 May 2023.
ROUNDCHECK findings revealed that Guinness World Records was yet to present Hilda Baci a certificate; although she had completed the marathon 100hrs cooking, her evidence was still being uploaded and undergoing review by the Guinness team at that time.
The report can be found here. Some of the blogs that had published the earlier false claim adjusted and deleted the image from their website. Furthermore, another report was done a few weeks after, when Guinness World Records presented her the certificate. By June 16 2023, we did an updated version which confirms that Hilda Baci Received the Guinness World Records Certificate for Longest Cooking Marathon.
5. Exposing The Voices Behind Nigeria’s President-elect, Tinubu Fake Post-Election Cash Gift
A Short Message Service (SMS) was claiming that the then president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (now sworn-in) was giving volunteers who worked for his victory the sum of N 86,890.
ROUNDCHECK’s researcher, Quadri Yahaya did an exclusive report published on 19 May 2023 to expose those using fake cash gifts to lure supporters of President Tinubu.
We further confirmed that the claimants are scammers trying to dupe unsuspecting members of the public by accessing their bank accounts to presumably hack and transfer their funds.
Read full report here
6. Isreal-Hamas War
This report ‘As Israel-Hamas War Persists, Misleading Contents Floods Social Media Platforms’ was published on 31 October, 2024 and written by Ijioma Caleb spotlighted some of the misleading contents being spread on social media about the Isreal-Hamas war.
On the 7th of October, the Palestinian militant group, Hamas launched an attack from the Gaza strip on Israel on 7 October, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostages. Heavily armed men breached the fences separating Israel and Gaza and entered southern Israel. According to Israeli officials, at least 1,400 people were killed, many of them civilians, including children.
You can read the full report here.
7. CLOSE CHECK: Many Years After, Nigeria Data Portal By NBS Yet To Update State Governments’ Profile
Despite being the official agency handling the statistical information of the Federal Government of Nigeria, some key information on the Nigeria Data Portal of the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is not updated.
Quadri Yahaya did a two part series detailing the lapses in the NBS website.
Read part I and part II here.
