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Claim: Viral images circulating on Facebook showed the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Chairman Wontumi), dressed in a prison uniform following his recent conviction and sentencing by the High Court in Accra.
Verdict: False! Digital forensic tools rated the images as synthetically generated using artificial intelligence (AI). DUBAWA identified visual inconsistencies between the viral images and authentic photographs of Chairman Wontumi taken during his trial and court appearances.
Full Text
The Accra High Court found Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Chairman Wontumi), the opposition New Patriotic Party’s Ashanti regional chairman and owner of Akonta Mining, guilty on all counts of assigning mineral rights without ministerial approval and purposefully facilitating unlawful mining activities. This followed a trial that lasted about 9.5 months, from October 7, 2025, to July 20, 2026.
The court sentenced him to 20 years’ imprisonment with hard labour and a fine of GH¢120,000. Kocuvie-Tay, the presiding judge, ruled that the prosecution had proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, noting that the absence of ministerial authorisation was undisputed.
The verdict is among the highest-profile convictions in Ghana’s ongoing crackdown on illegal small-scale mining. Defence counsel has since announced plans to appeal to the Court of Appeal, while the NPP leadership has described the conviction as a miscarriage of justice.
Shortly after the sentencing, images purporting to show Wontumi’s first day in prison began circulating widely on Facebook.
Nation Fight Fighter wrote, “Wuntomi is really enjoying prison,” along with an image (archived here). As of July 28, 2026, over 1,000 users reacted to the image, leaving over 100 comments and 32 people sharing the post.
One Facebook user, Alhassan Yakubu, shared another image (archived here) with the caption “Chairman Wuntomi Day 1 orientation,” adding a warning that others would soon join him.
The same account later shared a second image (archived here) captioned “Chairman Wuntomi first day at prison.”
Another user, Imporo GH, posted a photo collage (archived here) combining two different images with the caption asking whether Wontumi had truly been sentenced to 20 years with hard labour.
Several other Facebook users shared similar posts here and here.
In the comment sections, none of the users who engaged with the posts flagged the images as AI-generated. One commenter, Nat Laryea, wondered aloud why a wealthy man would end up in the same prison as everyone else.
Asa Bee, under Nation Fight Fighter’s post, wrote, “His breakfast was special, why?” suggesting he believes the image to be true. Frank Afenyo, in the same post, also wrote, “Why not sleeping on the ground?” suggesting that he believes the image is true.
Another, Norgah Rafui, mocked Wontumi’s situation, saying that at his age, 20 years amounted to a life sentence. Many other users responded only with laughing emojis, suggesting widespread acceptance of the images as genuine.
Given the images’ virality and the reactions they generated, DUBAWA conducted a fact-check to verify their authenticity.
Verification
DUBAWA ran three of the viral images through AIOrNot, an AI-detection tool. Two of the three images returned a 98% likelihood of being AI-generated. The third returned a 97% likelihood; scores strongly indicating synthetic origin rather than genuine photography.
Results of the analyses on AIorNot
Beyond the detection scores, DUBAWA compared the viral images against authentic photographs of Wontumi taken during his trial and court appearances, including images captured on the day of his conviction.
The comparison revealed inconsistencies typical of AI-generated imagery, including irregularities in facial detail and skin texture, mismatched lighting and shadowing.
Also, prison uniforms and setting details in the viral images did not correspond to any verified footage or photographs of Wontumi’s actual remand or custody, or prisons in Ghana.
DUBAWA also found no evidence that any credible Ghanaian media organisation had published or verified the images as authentic. No court or prison service statement, nor any mainstream outlet’s coverage of the sentencing, featured the images in circulation on Facebook.
Nicholas Essuman, Superintendent of Prisons, Officer-In-Charge of the ICT and Surveillance Unit, in an email said, “Please kindly disregard this image circulating since it’s AI-generated. “
Conclusion
The viral images claiming to show Chairman Wontumi in a prison uniform following his conviction and sentencing are AI-generated and do not depict a real event.
This report was produced under the 2026 Kwame Karikari Fact-checking and OSINT Fellowship, co-hosted by DUBAWA and the Digital Technology, Artificial Intelligence, and Information Disorder Analysis Centre (DAIDAC), with support from the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID).
