“Hello and welcome to the Fake News Debunker of West Africa Broadcast and Media Academy, WABMA is a professional media training institute and a finishing school for aspiring and current media practitioners; offering short and long-term certificate courses at the basic, intermediate, and advanced levels

First stop – Did Pope Francis cancel the Bible as claimed by Facebook users?

A  HYPERLINK “https://www.facebook.com/1298048561/posts/10221086567816011/?d=n” \t “/Users/ekeneodigwe/Documents\\x/_blank”Facebook post by Nathan Kuma claims Pope Francis, as part of his reform, has cancelled the Bible and proposed creating a new book. 

According to  Kuma, this is because the pope believes the Bible is outdated and in need of change.

To verify we followed the YouTube link and watched the video and observed that this four minutes five seconds video posted with the caption “Faith and Reform in the Catholic Church from The Vatican: A Wholly Roman Empire”, did not address the topic of the Bible and the need for its change. 

The video’s focus was on how Rome remains the heart of catholicism and a keyword search led to fact-checks, and, debunking of this claim.

Next, is a message on WhatsApp claiming that INEC permanent voters’ cards (PVCs) registered in 2011 are no longer valid and must be revalidated.

Remember in January 2022, INEC HYPERLINK “https://www.sunnewsonline.com/inec-dismisses-expiration-of-previously-issued-voters-cards/” \t “/Users/ekeneodigwe/Documents\\x/_blank” dismissed claims by Nigerian presidential aspirant that previously issued voters’ cards had expired.

“PVCs issued to all previously registered voters remain valid,” it said.

According to INEC eligible voters should not register more than once as card readers will still function in the 2023 election

The WhatsApp message was “false and should be ignored”, PVCs are issued by the elections agency.

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Did Nigeria’s Covid cases jump 45% in the first nine days of April 2022?

A  HYPERLINK “https://thenationonlineng.net/nigerias-covid-19-cases-rise-by-45-per-cent-in-nine-days/” \t “/Users/ekeneodigwe/Documents\\x/_blank”report in the Nation, a national newspaper in Nigeria, has claimed that Covid-19 cases in the country increased 45% from 1 to 9 April 2022.

The 11 April article cited data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and said new cases increased from 182 to 265 in the period. 

Are these numbers correct?

On 12 April the NCDC director-general Ifedayo Adetifa  HYPERLINK “https://authorityngr.com/2022/04/12/ncdc-debunks-alleged-45-increase-in-covid-19-cases/” \t “/Users/ekeneodigwe/Documents\\x/_blank”told journalists the news reports were inaccurate. The said Data does not support the newspaper’s percentage

The disease control centre publishes Covid-19 data in weekly and daily updates.

The number of new infections recorded on 31 March and 1 April was published on 2 April. According to the data, 53 new Covid cases, not the 182 cases reported by The Nation newspaper.

The number of cases recorded in the preceding week was 172.

From 2 to 11 April, the total number of cases  HYPERLINK “https://twitter.com/NCDCgov/status/1513663931969069067” \t “/Users/ekeneodigwe/Documents\\x/_blank”recorded was 165, not the 265 cases reported by the news organization.

Therefore Nigeria’s number of Covid cases did not increase by 45% – it reduced from 172 to 165.

As of 19 April 2022, Nigeria had conducted 5,036,813 tests for Covid, with 255,633  HYPERLINK “https://covid19.ncdc.gov.ng/” \t “/Users/ekeneodigwe/Documents\\x/_blank”confirmed cases and 3,142 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

When in doubt, visit NCDC’s official website and social media verified pages.

Conclusion:

[Remember to fact-check anything before you share it. Don’t engage, Don’t amplify]

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