Kogi Election: CDD West Africa Trains Fact-checkers To Counter Disinformation

The Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD West Africa has trained 25 Fact-checkers called ‘Soldiers of Mouth’ to counter disinformation in November 11 Governorship election in Kogi state.

The CDD Factcheckers at the 3-day intensive training of the ‘Soldiers of Mouth’ held in Lokoja, from 18th to 20th October, 2023, were exposed to the trends in the social media circle.

The training identified insecurity, information gap, intra and inter-party conflict, partisan inclination of bad actors in the cyber space, religious and ethnic biases of the internet users as the key drivers of disinformation in the social media ecosystem.

The CDD had earlier carried out information assessment in the state to find out the degree of disinformation (Fake News), ahead of the election with a view to countering disinformation during and after the governorship election in Kogi state.

In a message, the Executive Director of CDD West Africa, Idayat Hassan, represented by Mr. Armsfeel Ajanaku, said the CDD West Africa, with the support of its partners, was unrelenting in its commitment to fighting disinformation with a view to reducing incidence of fake news, which is a recurrent threat to information integrity in Kogi state.

The CDD executive director said early warning was key to countering the phenomenon of disinformation as she called on stakeholders to ensure early monitoring of fake news.

According to Ms. Hassan, CDD is coordinating the factchecking structure as it has finalized strategies towards disseminating factchecks on Kogi election on various platforms to reduce incidence of fake news.

The CDD urged social media companies to take down false contents, and stressed the need for increase in advocacy by stakeholders to stem the tide of ‘cyber stalking.

Digital Literacy

It called on the stakeholders to increase digital literacy among Nigerians.

The Nigeria Police, a stakeholder in the CDD factchecking strategy, was represented by the police public relations Officer in the state police command, SP William Aya, who expressed concerns on the circulation of fake press releases on the social media with intent to mislead the public.

SP Aya, called on social media users in the state to factcheck before sharing information on social media.

He warned ‘malicious actors’ of disinformation to desist from creating tension especially during the upcoming Governorship election in Kogi State.

Kogi State Coordinator of CDD, Mr. Ben Reuben Joshua, implored the ‘Soldiers of Mouth’ to wage war against online and Offline disinformation and mutation of data on the social media.

He reminded the soldiers of mouth that they are trained to monitor and debunk claims in the cyber space that could threaten peace in their various Communities in line with the objectives of the training.

Mr. Joshua, urged the CDD Factcheckers to approach the assignment with diligence, commitment and vigour as he described the task of the Factcheckers as a self-sacrifice necessary for information integrity in Kogi state and Nigeria.

He urged the Factcheckers to ensure timely verification of claims on the conduct of Kogi state election.

He also called on INEC, Police and other election stakeholders to proactively disclose  information to the public for common good of the society.

Confidence Okwuchi