A viral message on Facebook claims that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data show that 96% of mosques in Nigeria do not operate bank accounts.
The message further claims that NBS data authenticated that “no imam in Nigeria has a private jet.”
VERDICT: FALSE. The NBS does not have data on the number of mosques operating bank accounts in Nigeria or even the number of imams with private jets in the country.
Full Text
A Facebook user, Adidu Iwoh, claimed in a post that the NBS has data showing that 96% of mosques in Nigeria do not operate bank accounts.
The claim, shared by Edward Okoukoni Okojie in a facebook post, further claimed that the NBS has authenticated that no Imam in Nigeria has private jets.
An Imam is a title reserved for Islamic clerics who lead prayers in mosques.
The claim, also published by several other facebook users such as Muh’d Auwal Abubakar El-Sadeeq, read: “96% of mosques in Nigeria do not operate a bank account. (Published by NBS)… No Imam in Nigeria has a private jet (NBS data authenticate this information).”
Verification
The official website of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is the publication stock warehousing NBS data.
An intensive check of the website did not produce any data on the number of mosques with bank accounts nor the number of imams with private jets.
When contacted, the spokesperson of the NBS, who is also the Head, Public Affairs and International Relation Unit of the Bureau, Mr. Sunday Ichedi, debunked the claim of NBS having records of the number of mosques with bank accounts and imams with private jets.
“We don’t have such data. NBS has never published any data on the number of mosques with bank accounts. We don’t have any data on the number of imams with private jets. NBS does not have such information,” Ichedi said.
Conclusion
The claim that the NBS has data showing that 96% of mosques in Nigeria do not have bank accounts is false. Similarly, NBS does not have any data authenticating that no imam in Nigeria has private jets.
The researcher produced this fact-check under the auspices of the Dubawa 2020 Fellowship partnership with Daily Trust to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.
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