The Explainer fact-checking team has investigated a viral text message claiming the selection of candidates for military training at the Nigerian Navy Basic Training School (NNBTS) in Onne, Rivers State. The message states that the training will commence on October 6, 2023, and provides a link to the website www.joinnigeriannavy.com for further instructions.
Upon examination, we found that the link for the website did not contain any list of selected candidates. Instead, it only displayed various dates and venues for interviews conducted between August 1 and September 1, 2023.
Furthermore, the fact checkers visited the official Twitter page of the Nigerian Navy and discovered that the claim had been debunked. According to Commodore Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan, the Director of Naval Information, the Nigerian Navy had since disowned the purported list of successful candidates for Its Basic Training School (NNBTS) Batch 35 Recruitment, deeming it fake and the work of fraudulent elements attempting to deceive unsuspecting applicants.
Commodore Ayo-Vaughan clarified that the recruitment exercise was conducted in three centers across the country—Lagos, Rivers, and Kaduna—but no list of successful candidates had been released. Furthermore, he emphasized that no invitations for training had been disseminated via text message by the Nigerian Navy.
