As the National Communications Officer for the opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi has addressed the press and granted several interviews for his party and candidates. During these public appearances, some of his statements were inaccurate, and DUBAWA has presented the facts to those claims in reports.
- When He Stated That Every Interpol Red Notice Is Published On The Interpol Website
When an alleged airbus scandal involving Adam Mahama, the brother of former president John Mahama was revisited, Sammy Gyamfi, in an interview with Joy FM, stated that the Interpol Red Notice being circulated for Adam Mahama is fabricated and fake. According to him, every Interpol Red Notice is published on their website, and there is no evidence of Adam Mahama’s alert on the Interpol website. However, while there were reports from Interpol Accra and the Ghana Police Service to prove the alert to be true, we also found that not every Interpol Red Notice is published on the Interpol website. Read more about it here.
- When He Said The Regional Maritime Hospital Is The Only Hospital With A Helipad in Ghana
In an interview with Asempa FM, Sammy Gyamfi highlighted some of the infrastructural achievements of the Mahama-led administration. He mentioned that the Regional Maritime Hospital (an institutional health facility constructed by the Mahama administration) is the only hospital with a helipad and can receive patients flown in for treatment. Unfortunately, this is not the case. We found that at least the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and the 37 Military Hospital also have helipads that allow helicopters evacuating accident victims and other emergencies to land directly at the hospitals. Read all about it here.
- When He Quoted Some False Figures Regarding Some Aspects Of The Economy
The NDC held a press conference to address Ghana’s economic situation at the time. Addressing the press, Sammy Gyamfi made some comparisons on the economic performance between the incumbent government, NPP and the NDC (as the former government). Assessing Gyamfi’s entire speech, we found that, while his statements on Ghana’s cedi depreciation, Ghana’s unemployment rate and the budget deficit for other African countries were true, the figures he attributed to Ghana’s debt increment, Ghana’s debt to GDP ratio, Ghana’s debt servicing, Ghana’s growth rate for the construction sector, Ghan’s tax revenue, and Ghana’s budget deficit were all inaccurate. Read the entire report in the two-part fact-check series here and here.
- When He Said The UK Inflation Rate Was Experiencing A Downward Trend
During a panel discussion on TV3, Sammy Gyamfi responded to comparisons made by a presidential staffer, Edward Aboagye, regarding the rising rate of inflation in the economy of some of Ghana’s trade partners including Turkey, Brazil, the USA and the UK. In his response, Gyamfi argued that inflation in the UK was getting better and the rate was getting lower. Meanwhile, data from the UK’s Office of National Statistics show that the country’s inflation rate has been rising since October 2021. Read the full fact-check here.
- When He Said That Ghana’s Inflation Rate Was Above 20% When The NDC Won The 2008 Election
Speaking in an interview on Peace FM, Sammy Gyamfi described the current economic state led by the NPP as a mess and worse than before. He added that Ghana’s inflation rate had crossed 20% when his party won the 2008 general elections. However, data from the World Bank, Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Statistical Service proved otherwise, showing a 16.5% inflation rate for 2008 by the end of December. Read all about it here.
