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Claim: An X user alleges that the General Secretary of Ghana’s opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Fifi Kwetey, said his party would divide the Ashanti region into two if elected in the upcoming presidential election.

Verdict: False. Investigations by DUBAWA have revealed that Mr Kwetey did not make the comments attributed to him. Also, Beatrice Annan, a deputy spokesperson of ex-President John Mahama, has disputed the claim and described it as “fake news coming from tribal bigots.”
Full Text
An X (formerly Twitter) user has claimed that the General Secretary of Ghana’s largest opposition, National Democratic Congress (NDC), Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, has said his party would divide the Ashanti region into two regions if elected in the Dec. 2024 presidential election.
The claim shared by the X user on June 18, 2024, was contained in a flyer with the following comments attributed to the former Ghanaian lawmaker:
“Future NDC government has plans to divide the Ashanti Region to appease Volta Region.”
The Ashanti Region is located in southern Ghana and is one of the 16 administrative regions. According to the 2021 census report, it is the third-largest of the administrative regions, occupying a landmass of 24,207.1 km and having a population of 5.4 million.
Based on residents’ voting patterns in the Ashanti region, it has been described as a stronghold of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP). Particularly after the 2020 general election, the NPP won 42 out of the 46 Parliamentary seats available in the region, with the NDC winning the remaining four.
Similarly, the Volta region, with a landmass of 20,631.2 km and a population of 2.4 million, is the political stronghold of the opposition NDC. During the 2020 general election, the NDC won 17 of the 18 parliamentary seats available in the region, and the NPP won one.
Reacting to the alleged division of the Ashanti region, one of the X users wrote:
“NDC, never again.”
Data available on X showed the claim had been viewed 8,908 times with 64 comments.
Also, the flyer was shared by a Facebook user who claimed to support the comment about the division of the Ashanti region.
“This is a debate I am willing to have and I support the division of the Ashanti region wholeheartedly. I support the idea because of the national cake and for economic development reasons,” he wrote on June 18, 2024.
According to Facebook, the user’s post has received 107 comments and 26 likes since it was shared.
Commenting on the post, another Facebook user wrote: “If this is indeed true, and he did say this for the reasons he mentioned, it saddens me. However, I am not entirely surprised. I sincerely hope that he did not express a desire to divide the region to satisfy another group.”
DUBAWA decided to probe the claim as part of its campaign against misinformation and disinformation ahead of Ghana’s 2024 election.
Verification
Ghana’s opposition NDC has disputed the claim allegedly made by its General Secretary, Fifi Kwetey.
Responding to the claim on Facebook on June 18, 2024, Beatrice Annan, the Deputy Spokesperson of the NDC 2024 presidential candidate, John Mahama, said:
“Ignore the fake news from the tribal bigots. They will not develop Ashanti Region, but rather use tribal sentiments for votes.”
The flyer has the logos of platforms operated by one of Ghana’s leading media groups, Excellence In Broadcasting Limited, popularly called the EIB network, and owned by a former Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor.
DUBAWA contacted a reporter with Ultimate FM, Justice Bediako, to find out if his team had created the flyer, but he denied their involvement.
“[This is] fake,” he said.
When asked what his team is doing to stop fact cards from being designed using their logos, Mr Bediako said, “Management is working on it.”
DUBAWA later conducted a Google keyword search to determine whether some reputable media organisations in Ghana had published the claim.
However, there is no data online linking the NDC General Secretary, Mr Kwetey, to the comment attributed to him.
Conclusion
The NDC General Secretary, Fifi Kwetey, did not say that a future NDC government ‘will divide the Ashanti region’ to appease its supporters in the Volta region.