Raji Yekinni and Sultan Quadri


The Recent Norm

We are all overwhelmed with the emergence of fake news, misleading sources, satirical content, clickbait , and alternative facts which have been in circulation and currently on the recent pandemics issues happening across the globe.
With the Emergence of this Pandemic Problem, Leaders have been prompted to take actions by implementing lockdown protocols in order to curb the virus.
As a result of this worrying problem, Fake News pertaining to the pandemic has been spread across various social media outlets such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and also blogs.

A Major Source of Fake News


In Nigeria, some Blogs have seen this as an opportunity to tricks Readers with fake content with the sole aim of accumulating traffics to their blogs.


“Legitfund.com.ng has been proven as a major carrier of fake news. We discovered that it churns out false information steadily.”


Several news stories dispersed by the blog is fake and unverified and some have been debunked by People’s Check
We have previously debunked claims which emanated from the site, a series of fake stories have been published by the site in the past month.

Recent False Claims

CLAIM

The story suggests that Former Vice President, Abubakar Atiku wept after losing his son to COVID-19. The story has recorded 21,902 views at the time of this report.

CONCLUSION

The claim is completely false. Atiku Abubakar’s Son has been discharged

VERIFICATION

Atiku Abubakar’s Son was discharged 40 days after he was confirmed positive for COVID-19 on March 18. It was reported by PREMIUM TIMES on August 31, 2018, that former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, on Friday wept while speaking to some of his supporters.
Mr. Abubakar was responding to the supporters who had purchased a Peoples Democratic Party presidential nomination form for him.

CLAIM

A News Story has been in circulation alleging president Muhammadu Buhari Of saying, The Federal Government is tired of sending 20,000 nairas to Nigerians weekly. This story has garnered 29,258 views as at the time of this report

CONCLUSION

This Claim is totally false as the President has not said anything like that.

VERIFICATION

The last time the president spoke about palliatives was on April 13 when he made a Nationwide broadcast addressing Nigerians on the Lockdown protocols.
In the address, the President noted that the current social register is expanded from 2.6 million households to 3.6 million households. Since then he hasn’t made mention of it.

CLAIM

The story published by this same site suggests that Obasanjo begged the President to add an additional 40 days to the lockdown. This story has recorded 3,392 views at the time of this report.

CONCLUSION

The claim is totally false. Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo didn’t make that statement at any point in time.

VERIFICATION

When People’s check contacted the former president’s spokesman, Kehinde Akinyemi he warned that any statement attributed to his principal without a mention of when and where he said it should be discarded.

Previously Debunked False Stories

People’s Check have debunked the following false claims which emanated from this website.

This story suggests that Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo claim to have sent 5,000 to all using BVN. The story has recorded 75,833 views at the time of this report. It was debunked, here.


The story which was published on April 16 suggests that President Buhari added 60 days to the lockdown. It has garnered 24,673 views at the time of this report. It was debunked, here.

This story suggests that the federal government admit that 50 goats eat 50 Billion Naira relief funds. It has recorded 28,914 views at the time of this report It was debunked, here.

Effects

The fake stories published on this site has ccontributed heavily to misinformation in Nigeria and confusing Nigerians at every step of the way.

Its story on 50 goats eating 50 billion spiked an increase in google search for it. Luckily, our Fact check got featured on Google first page too.

FINAL CONCLUSION

We strongly advised Nigerians to avoid reading stories from this website.

People’s check implores Nigerians not to be too quick to believe and send messages they receive from any social platform until they are sure of its accuracy.

If you have any information you want to verify, contact our Official WhatsApp account – 09077420450

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