Claim: Social media users are quoting Yaw Osafo-Maafo, who is a leading member of the New Patriotic Party, as declaring support for Alan Kyerematen, the current Trade Minister, to lead the party into the 2024 polls.
Mr. Osafo-Maafo has denied making such a statement.
Full Text
A post being widely shared on various social media platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter says that Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo has declared support for Trade Minister, Alan Kyerematen, to lead the New Patriotic Party into the 2024 elections.
The quote, being attributed to Mr. Osafo-Maafo, noted that the New Patriotic Party is mainly supported by members of the Akan speaking community, hence the need for Alan Kyerematen to lead the party.
A screenshot of the quote allegedly made by Mr. Osaafo-Maafo
Verification
A search on Facebook using a portion of the quote does not lead to any written text by any user of the platform even though the circulating photo suggests that it has been posted on the social media platform.
The results that come up on Facebook are only photos that capture the quote.
On Twitter, however, the quote has been typed and a photo of Mr. Osafo-Maafo, the same as used in the Facebook post, is attached.
Interestingly, the posts found on Twitter and the ones that were posted on Facebook in photo format all committed the same punctuation and capitalization errors – raising a red flag.
Some of the twitter posts can be found here, here, and here.
Furthermore, these users have failed to indicate the source of the post, therefore, questioning its credibility.
Also, no leading news portal in the country has published a story featuring Mr. Osafo-Maafo on the said matter.
Mr. Osaafo-Maafo is a high-profile member of the New Patriotic Party and currently the Special Advisor to President Akufo-Addo.
It raises questions that a person of such calibre will make a statement and it will be missed by leading news agencies in the country.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Senior Presidential Advisor has issued a public statement denying the claim.
“With reference to the said circulation, we emphasise that Hon. Yaw Osafo-Maafo has never uttered such “irresponsible, misguided, tribalistic and ethnocentric” statements either in public or private directly or indirectly and has no cause to do so,” part of the disclaimer reads.
Conclusion
It is not true that Hon. Yaw Osafo-Maafo has declared support for Alan Kyerematen. The viral social media posts suggesting that he had done so are without an identifiable source, raising concerns about its credibility.
Moreover, Hon. Yaw Osafo-Maafo has denied the claims.
