The president of the NAACP Alabama conference said Thursday that the group is looking into the validity of a government excellence award given to U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions eight years ago.

Benard Simelton, president of the NAACP in Alabama, said the state conference is working with the NAACP's national office to determine how the award was presented to Sessions.

Sarah Flores, a spokeswoman with Sessions, confirmed the existence of the award. It was circulated on social media on Wednesday, the day in which the Senate debated Sessions' confirmation as the 84th attorney general.

"We are trying to figure out how he got that and we're working with our national office to ... release a statement on that," Simelton said, adding that he wasn't the president of the conference at the time and was unaware of the award.

"We are trying to run down the details and release a statement," he said.

Jimmy Gardner, the current mayor of Prichard who was president of the Mobile NAACP chapter at that time, said he believes the award was given by the Alabama state conference.

"There were several governmental folks who were awarded for their work and what they had done," said Gardner, adding that he was unclear as to why Sessions was honored. "It was based on their work."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Sessions' supporter, tweeted out a picture of the award on Wednesday, raising questions as to why the NAACP vigorously opposed the senator's appointment.

The NAACP now opposes Sen. Jeff Sessions.....though in 2009 they honored him with their Governmental Award of Excellence. #ConfirmSessions pic.twitter.com/N161sC5AnE — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 7, 2017

The group staged two sit-in demonstrations outside of Sessions' office in Mobile. Twice last month, protestors were arrested for trespassing including the current NAACP president Cornell Brooks.

Brooks, himself, was among the people who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in January in opposition to Sessions' nomination as the chief law enforcement official in the U.S.

Politico reported that the award was found as an aide was cleaning out the Mobile office.

The award, shaped as the state of Alabama, was given to Sessions during the NAACP Civic and Human Rights Convention that was held in Mobile from April 23-26, 2009.

The award honors Sessions with the group's "NAACP Governmental Award of Excellence." Inscribed on it, "For the outstanding work you do."

The website snopes.com is raising questions to the validity of the award noting that their organization could not find any records of past lawmakers receiving a "NAACP Government Award of Excellence."

An AL.com story that year noted that the convention took place in Mobile and that land loss of black families was the main focus of the event.

This story was updated at 9:32 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017, to include comments from Jimmy Gardner.