To combat disinformation and lie-peddling during the coming general elections, the Nigeria FactCheckers’ Coalition (NFC), has promised to play prominent role and will be participating in the Presidential Town Hall meeting, organised by Arise Television on Sunday 13th, November 2022.

The Coalition which comprises some news platforms and civil society organizations like Africa Check, Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD; Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development, CJID, Daily Trust, Digital Africa Research Lab, Dubawa, FactCheckhub, FactsMatterNG, International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR; Premium Times, The Cable, The Insight declare its intent in a press release by on Saturday 11th, 2022.

The town hall meeting organised by Arise TV, will feature the presidential candidates of Africa Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore; Action Democratic Party (ADP), Yabagi Sani; All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Prof. Peter Umeadi and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo.

The first edition of the Presidential Town Hall meeting, which was held last week had featured the Presidential candidates of Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwakanso, Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and the vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ifeanyi Okowa while the presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC) was absent.

According to a press release from the coalition, fact-checking events like the presidential town hall meeting will help ascertain true information in the country’s electioneering process. As a result of that, the coalition will be fact-checking claims from the participating presidential candidates, the statement added.

The press statement reads: “The coalition will conduct a live fact-checking of claims and counterclaims that will be made by candidates during the town hall meeting tomorrow.
Sunday’s event will feature the presidential candidates of Africa Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore; Action Democratic Party, Yabagi Sani; All Progressive Grand Alliance, Prof. Peter Umeadi and the Social Democratic Party, Prince Adewole Adebayo.

“Managing Editor of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting Ajibola Amzat described town hall meetings as an important opportunity for candidates to share their thoughts with Nigerians. “But we should not take it for granted that the information the politicians will provide is gospel truth. That is why the role of the Nigeria Fact Checkers’ Coalition is crucial in the town hall meeting series,” he said.

“Dubawa Editor Kemi Busari expressed satisfaction with the contribution of the Nigerian Fact-checkers’ Coalition so far. “More and more, we are seeing politicians being careful with their statements. That goes to show how many Nigerian fact-checkers have done to enrich our democracy. He said the coalition is set to engage important facts on the election and we hope to continuously help in curbing the spread of falsehood and avail citizens with accurate information to make political decisions.

“Editor FactCheckhub Opeyemi Kehinde stressed the resolve of the coalition to provide the electorate with accurate information. “As a member of the coalition, we believe the success of Nigeria’s 2023 election holds the ace to advancing good governance, peace and security of the West African sub-region; thus, our resolve to ensure that the Nigerian electorate has access to factual information that could enable the m make an informed decision during the election and beyond”.