Claim: A Facebook post purportedly from Black Stars and Southampton centre-back, Mohammed Salisu, says he was open to promoting small Ghanaian businesses that would contact him.
Verdict: False. The Ghana Football Association and the Black Stars discredited the post, saying the Southampton star does not have a Facebook account. Furthermore, the verified Instagram account of the centre-back said he had no account on Facebook or Twitter.
Full Text
A post on Facebook, purportedly from Black Stars and Southampton’s defender, Mohammed Salisu, had asked small Ghanaian businesses to contact him for promotional opportunities.
The post was shared by an unverified Facebook account on March 23, 2023, purporting to be of Salisu Mohammed. The account had the letters S and M on a black background as the profile picture, with a group photo of other senior national team players in an all-white jersey as the cover image.
Data on Facebook showed that the account had over 35,001 likes and 161,034 followers as of March 23, 2023. The last time that page was updated was March 23, 2023, after the Black Stars AFCON Qualifiers 2023 win against Angola held at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
DUBAWA’s search on Facebook showed that three other accounts and pages purportedly linked to the Southampton centre-back are equally active with regular updates.
The first of the three other Facebook accounts, Mohammed Salisu, had the image of the Ghanaian centre-back in the Black Stars white jersey with a pose in a Southampton green jersey as the cover image.
According to the data on Facebook, the account had over 26,456 likes with over 83,383 followers. The last time that page was updated was also on March 23, 2023, with the picture of a Ghanaian sports journalist, Owuraku Ampofo, sleeping on the floor of what appears to be an empty stadium.
The second Facebook account, Salisu Mohammed, had the image of the centre-back in a Southampton red and white jersey as the profile picture, with a photo of him in the red jersey of the Black Stars tackling a Brazilian player as the cover image.
Data available on Facebook show that the account had over 15,202 likes and over 39,234 followers. That account was last updated on March 23, 2023, with the image of the star defender in his Black Stars training kit with the post “Match Day.”
The last Facebook account, Mohammed Salisu, had a picture of the Ghanaian defender in a training outfit as its profile picture with an image of the star in the Black Stars red jersey racing a Brazilian player.
The account was last updated on March 23, 2023, with an image of Black Stars forwarding Antoine Semenyo with the post “Antoineee Semenyoooooo.”
Data available on Facebook show that the last account had over 3,623 likes and 148,123 followers. A post on this account reads, “…this is an unofficial page of Mohammed Salisu, which is run by fans!”
In the wake of the spike in scams targeting victims online, DUBAWA decided to investigate the matter to verify the post.
Verification
The Ghana Football Association had said the Ghanaian and Southampton centre-back had no Facebook account.
In a post on its Facebook wall dated March 23, 2023, the country’s football body entreated the unsuspecting public to disregard and desist from engaging with any post shared on the purported Facebook accounts and pages of the star defender, Mohammed Salisu.
“Our attention has been drawn to these Facebook accounts impersonating Mohammed Salisu…Salisu is not on Facebook,” the post read.
The Ghana Black Stars, on its Facebook page, issued a similar disclaimer to the public to be vigilant in their engagement with anyone impersonating the defender.
Also, the Twitter account of the Ghana Black Stars repeated the disclaimer urging the public to disregard and report those behind the many Facebook accounts impersonating the Southampton defender.
When DUBAWA visited the verified Instagram account of the Black Stars defender, Mohammed Salisu, there was a notice that the sports personality had no account on both Facebook and Twitter.
The Instagram account was last updated on March 20, 2023, with pictures of the player in a Southampton jersey from their March 18, 2023, Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspurs.
Similarly, DUBAWA visited the Facebook account, which shared the initial post inviting small Ghanaian businesses to contact the ace centre-back. However, records on the social media platform showed the said post had been deleted.
It is, therefore, clear that the Facebook post inviting small Ghanaian businesses to contact the defender is not coming from him.
Conclusion
The Black Stars and Southampton defender, Mohammed Salisu, does not have a Facebook account or page. Therefore, the public should disregard any post shared by the four accounts impersonating him.
