Some hours after its official Facebook page was verified, A Nigerian university, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, on Thursday, 3rd of February, 202, posted a viral post which claimed that the university is the third Nigerian university to be verified by Facebook after American University of Nigeria
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| A viral post made by UDUSOK’s Facebook page |
The post reads, “DID YOU KNOW?
@UDUSOK IS THE THIRD UNIVERSITY OFFICIAL SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLE TO GET VERIFIED BY FACEBOOK OFFICIALLY AFTER
American University of Nigeria IN NIGERIA.”
Within six days, this post generated a total number of 800 likes, 61 comments and 23 shares.
The News Digest Press investigation revealed that this post has also been adopted by a Facebook user, Salahuddeen Bello Bala, who is later identified as the university’s social media officer. His post has also generated an accumulation of 209 likes, 30 comments and 1 share on Facebook.
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| Salahuddeen’s adopted post on Facebook, spreading the claim |
When contacted for the source of this information, the social media officer said, “It was arrived after some research on the web. This was actually a totalling number from public-owned institutions in Nigeria.
“It is actually subject to review and amendments because I am sure you must have some objections,” he added.
How accurate was Salahuddeen’s claim? We checked.
Background Story
To curb the incessant rate of misinformation and fake news, and to regulate social media contents within the university’s environment, In April, 2021, the management of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto appointed Salahudeen Bello Bala as its pioneer Social Media Officer.
Salaudeen, according to a statement released on his Facebook handle, would work under the newly established UDUS Social Media Monitoring Committee to serve and protect the image of the varsity.
In doing that, not more than a week after his appointment, he announced the official taking over of the university social media accounts by the management from private admins.
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| Salahuddeen announcing the official taking of UDUS social media accounts. |
One of the social media accounts adopted officially by the university was a Facebook page named ‘Udusok’. The page had over 24,000 followers and it was manned by a graduate of the university who freely surrendered the page to the school.
On Wednesday, 2nd of February, 2022, this page was officially verified by Facebook as the official page of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto after unrelenting efforts by the social media officer.
Findings
From the Facebook post, the following claims were established:
Claim 1:
Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto(UDUSOK), Sokoto State is the third Nigerian University that would be verified by Facebook.
Findings by The News Digest Press show that this claim is not correct.
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| A screenshot of FUTA’s verified Facebook page |
Through Open-source intelligence (OSINT) searches carried out on Thursday, 3nd of February, 2021, it was gathered that before Wednesday, 2nd of February, 2022: the day UDUSOK’s Facebook page was verified, three other Nigerian universities had already gotten their pages verified on Facebook.
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| A screenshot of CU’s verified Facebook page |
These universities are Federal University of Technology Akure(FUTA) in Ondo State, Covenant University (CU) in Ogun State, and American University of Nigeria(AUN) in Adamawa State.
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| A screenshot of AUN’s verified Facebook page |
The Verdict: This claim is not accurate.
Claim 2:
‘That American University of Nigeria got Facebook verification before UDUSOK’
The News Digest Press OSINT investigation shows that the official Facebook page of American University of Nigeria was verified before the UDUSOK’s Facebook page.
The Verdict: The claim is true.
Conclusion
Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUSOK) is not the third Nigerian university verified by Facebook as claimed based on the findings.