Fact CheckPolitics

False, Akufo Addo did not beg to attend late Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral

Claim: A Twitter user claims Akufo Addo begged to attend late Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.

False. After assessing the video, DUBAWA found out that the video had been tampered with. President Akufo Addo only declared his intention to attend the late Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. 

Full Text 

A Twitter user @cdzas has claimed that Akufo Addo begged to attend late Queen Elizabeth  II’s funeral.

This claim was made on Twitter on September 18, 2022, at 7:16 pm when he posted a video purportedly from Metro TV, a Ghanaian television station. The claim is sighted in a headline of a purported news story by the station. 

The headline of the purported news story is captioned “Akufo Addo begs to attend the late Queen’s funeral.”  His post has received over 3,000 views. In the video, President Akufo Addo and the British High Commissioner for Ghana Harriet Thompson are seen engaging in an interaction. 

The video has also been published on YouTube by a user called Nkone Tv. 

Some users in the comment section have also shared varied views on the video criticizing the president, with others questioning the authenticity of the video. 


 

Source: Twitter

This has become necessary to look into due to some countries being invited only at the ambassadorial level. As an independent verification organization, we decided to bring clarity to the matter. 

Verification 

The video is 39 seconds long. First, DUBAWA decided to transcribe the video to make it easier to understand the interactions between the two. 

Akufo Addo: I intend to go to London for the funeral and I want to know whether you have anything, in particular, to tell me about that.

Harriet Thompson: The invitations have been sent, so they will be with your High Commission in London. They were sent over the weekend, and we’ll make sure the arrangements work smoothly between your team there and our team here.

Clearly, from the conversation above, there is no proof that the president begged to attend the late Queen’s funeral. The president only declared his intention and further asked for updates on his quest to go to the funeral in London. 

After further assessment of the video purported to be from Metro TV, we found out that the video had been tampered with. The slug has been edited. DUBAWA observed various news bulletins of the television station, and we found out that the slugs of their news bulletins are written in capital letters, not small letters. 

Further checks on the Facebook page of Metro TV revealed that the original slug of the video published on Monday, September 12, 2022, at 1:25 pm was “BOOK OF CONDOLENCE OPENED” and not “Akufo Addo beg to attend the late Queen’s funeral.”


                      Original                                                                Fake 

Further investigation using Fotoforensics, a digital picture analysis tool, suggests that the image has had some edits done to it. The JPEG% in the Fotoforensics tool also shows a mass repetition of numbers. This is a red flag. This suggests that the image has been opened, layered and closed, possibly multiple times.

Conclusion 

False, after assessing the video, DUBAWA found out that the video had been tampered with. President Akufo Addo only declared his intention to attend the late Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.  Additionally, the video being circulated indicating that the president did beg has its slug manipulated as well. The original video published by Metro TV had “BOOK OF CONDOLENCE OPENED” and not “Akufo Addo begs to attend the late Queen’s funeral” as purported in the video.

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