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Claim: Several social media users claim John Ntim Fordjour, member of parliament for Assin South, threatened bloodshed during the Akwatia by-elections.
Verdict: True. DUBAWA’s checks revealed that the MP made the comments attributed to him. Various video evidence shows that the MP made these comments when the minority presented a petition to the president on July 24, 2025.
Full Text
The minority in parliament walked out before the finance minister presented the mid-year budget review in protest over the electoral violence during the Ablekuma North rerun on July 13.
They “alleged” the government’s failure to arrest the perpetrators of the violence is indicative of its support for voter intimidation.
After walking out, they presented a petition to several key stakeholders, including the presidency. They asked the president to act on the electoral violence to prevent similar occurrences. Stan Dogbe received the petition on behalf of the president.
Moments after the petition was presented, John Ntim Fordjour, MP for Assin South, made remarks on electoral violence and how it could breed further “bloodshed” in ensuing elections, particularly the upcoming Akwatia by-election.
Shortly after he commented, it went viral with a number of people accusing him of threatening violence and bloodshed, as can be seen here.
Shortly after, Ntim Fordjour released a presser refuting claims of inciting electoral violence ahead of the Akwatia by-elections.
“Kindly disregard the false and malicious publications purportedly attributing to me, threats of bloodshed in the upcoming Akwatia by-election,” he stated in a caption on X.
However, did Ntim Fordjour make the “bloodshedding” comments? DUBAWA decided to investigate to promote truth in public discourse.
Verification
DUBAWA did a thorough content analysis of the interview granted by Ntim Fordjour after the minority petitioned the president on July 24, 2025, to verify this claim. Short clips of the interview in which he made remarks on electoral violence can be found here, here, and here.
For avoidance of doubt, these are the words of the MP for Assin South:
“We want to send a strong signal that if the president wants to continue his inaction in bringing the perpetrators to book, arresting them, and persecuting them, there’s going to be bloodshed in Akwatia and future elections. We don’t want bloodshed in future elections. Democracy cannot be traded for violence. We don’t want a time when you go to put a ballot box at a polling station and nobody comes out to vote.
“No one wants to come out and get killed by some political vigilantes, and that is what NDC is doing. It is a dangerous trend, it is a national security threat, and it must be rooted out, and the president must show commitment, but so far, he has demonstrated that he doesn’t care, so people who care in this country will rise up, and that is why this signal is very important. You can read all the mid-year budget, but if you’re killing the people and hurting the very people who voted for you, who are very important actors in our democratic governance, it is sad. We don’t want to derail our democracy,” he said.
He further explained the need for the police and government to take action against perpetrators of the Ablekuma North violence to serve as a caution to others who may decide to cause mayhem.
Also, he expressed how unimpressed he is with the arrest of two people out of the numerous “hooligans” who were involved in violence at the recent rerun at Ablekuma North.
Conclusion
Video evidence shows that Ntim Fordjour made the bloodshed comments attributed to him by several social media users, even though it was on condition of the president’s failure to arrest the culprits of the Ablekuma North election rerun.
