Claim: FG is paying N50,000 child support fund to Nigerian parents
A viral WhatsApp message claims that the Federal Government of Nigeria, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is paying N50,000 Child Support Fund for all Nigerian parents. The post contains a registration link for Nigerians to register: https://ggdfggdghhfdchh.blogspot.com/?m=1
The post, with the title, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ₦50,000 CHILD SUPPORT FUND FOR ALL NIGERIAN PARENTS IS ONGOING, claims that President Tinubu has directed the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Beta C. Edu to open the CHILD SUPPORT scheme.
Due to the virality of the claim and the suspicion surrounding it, we decided to conduct a fact-check.
Verification
Using website analytical tools such as Spyonweb and Whois, no tangible information was found about the portal.
Also, remember that President Tinubu suspended Beta Edu as the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, because of controversies about financial transactions she authorised in her ministry.
Analysis of the portal shows that the URL: https://ggdfggdghhfdchh.blogspot.com/?m=1 does not represent any formal domain name used by the government for such a programme. Also, it is registered as a blogspot.
We supplied pseudo information on the portal and it took us to another page, which is another fake website created by the author of the viral message.
The body of the page shows that our application was being processed. Under the message were fake screenshots of people sharing testimonies that they received the fund.
We supplied a non-existing account number to the portal and chose a random bank. The message received shows that the account number supplied has been chosen among (spelt as amoung) those to be credited but the message must be shared on 5 WhatsApp groups before the fund can be received. This is why the post has been shared multiple times on WhatsApp by those who are deceived by the claim that they will receive N50,000 for child support from the Federal Government.
Upon further research, we found that on April 20 2024, a Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, through his X (former Twitter) handle (@DOlusegun) urged Nigerians to disregard the claim that the federal government is giving out N50,000 as a Child Support Fund to Nigerian parents.
Conclusion
The claim that the Federal Government is paying N50,000 to Nigerian parents as Child Support Fund is false. Such a programme is not ongoing and the President’s aide has tagged it as fake news.
All of these points to the question: Could this message have emanated from cybercrime perpetrators to defraud gullible Nigerians in their hard time?
Verdict: False. Such a programme is not ongoing in Nigeria.
