A recent news report has circulated with the claim purporting that the Federal Government of Nigeria recently mandated deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) tests on newborns nationwide.
The news piece, authored by Hassan Haruna and published by The News Chronicle on April 1, 2024, carries the headline, “Breaking: FG Mandates Nationwide DNA Testing for Newborns.”
According to the report, a minister of the federal republic pledged that government hospitals and clinics would conduct DNA tests at no cost. Multiple social media bloggers including Instablog9ja and Gossip Mill Nigeria, shared the claim on X and Instagram.
This is coming amid the recent wave of paternity fraud that has generated controversies across popular social media platforms.
Claim: The Federal Government of Nigeria recently mandated DNA tests on newborns nationwide
Verification
Upon verification, the CDD War Room observed that the name of the minister who supposedly made this announcement was not mentioned in the news report. Additionally, we found multiple reports from The Punch and The Cable where the Federal Government debunked a similar claim in January 2022, as can be seen here and here.
After conducting thorough research, we found no credible news reports where the federal government of Nigeria had recently announced mandating DNA tests on newborns nationwide.
Verdict: FALSE
The CDD War Room found that there has been no recent announcement by the Federal Government of Nigeria regarding a policy to mandate DNA tests on newborns nationwide. This is an old claim, which was previously debunked in January 2022.
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