PRESS RELEASE: Fact Checks on Presidential Titles Fraud, Impact of Climate Crisis on Women, Winners of 2024 African Fact Check Awards

ACCRA. Chiagozie Nwonwu, Fauziyya Tukur and Olaronke Alo were this year’s winners of the ‘Fact-Checking of the Year by a Working Journalist’ category at the African Fact-Checking Awards ceremony. in Ghana on October 10.

theirs winning entry addressed the controversy surrounding the eligibility of Bola Tinubu, the ruling party’s candidate for Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election.

Nwonwu and colleagues from the BBC’s global disinformation team examined a claim by the legal team of one of Tinubu’s main rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, that Tinubu had forged his title university

Your research found no evidence to support the allegation.

Nwonwu said there had been a backlash from both the government and the public along political lines in response to his findings. This included petitions to the BBC and vitriolic attacks on social and traditional media.

“It is important for journalists to know that fact-checking is not always about when you hold the government accountable, but also when you tell the truth, because it is only the truth,” Nwonwu said while accepting his award.

“We’re not bound to excite or distort, we’re just telling the truth.”

Ousmane Mamoudou’s work for Niger Kalangou studyinvestigating the accuracy of the statements about the military capabilities of Niger’s army and Russian support, was runner-up in this category.

Winner of the Professional Data Verifier category

Adnan Sidibe was the winner in the professional data checker category. his fact checking focused on the impact of the climate crisis on women, and led the United Nations Development Program to withdraw from its online publications a much-cited statistic that “80% of those affected by the climate crisis are women”.

Sidibe is a researcher with FasoCheck in Burkina Faso. “A better understanding of the impact of climate change on women will allow policies to be developed and actions to be taken that are truly tailored to their needs,” she said in her entry.

Sidibe said the awards represented “the pinnacle of fact-checking in Africa” and gave visibility and value to fact-checking journalism.

Simbiat Bakare of Nigeria’s Dubawa and AFP’s James Okong’o were the runners-up. His work was focused a social media scammer who fakes an illness to scam women and the prejudicial claims of a Kenyan anti-vaxxer doctorrespectively.

Winner of the student category

The winner in the student journalist category was Rita Enemuru from Nigeria. A student of the University of Oyo, Enemuru checked the widespread claims about DNA test mandatory for newborn babies.

The University of Mauritius team of Caulleechurn Diksha, Deenoo Mansha, Kishto Preetish and Lallmamode Lloyd were the runners-up in this category.

theirs detailed verification of the facts weighed in on claims made during the campaign about the cost of living in the island nation ahead of the November 2024 general election.

The awards ceremony was part of the Africa Facts Summit organized by Check Africathat he gathered 200 participants from fact-checking organizations, academia, and tech giants.

Fact checkers issue statement

The annual summit addresses emerging topics such as artificial intelligence, belief systems in disinformation and the future of fact-checking on the continent.

The meeting also issued a statement in which the continent’s fact-checkers highlighted the harm of false information and the challenges of fact-checking in an environment where most people have limited access to the Internet and reliable information.

They decided to collaborate more to disrupt harmful information, engage partners, technology platforms and governments in AI-powered solutions, improve digital literacy and create systems to strengthen Africa’s information resilience and integrity.

For any queries please contact Africa Check on (email protected)