Claim: A photo of a Ghanaian nurse honoured with a motorbike has resurfaced as Accra-based Peace 104.3 FM featured it in its major news bulletin
The photo dates back to 2018 and has been manipulated.
Full Text
On Saturday, May 14, 2022, a photo of a nurse sitting on a motorbike was featured in the 6PM bulletin of Peace 104.3FM. The bulletin was dubbed “Ghana This Week.”
The photo was displayed to its Facebook audience whilst the newscasters gave a verbal description to its audience.
In the photo, a woman with large buttocks was seated on what appears to be a new motorbike whilst the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu and a few others looked on.
In discussing the photo for about ten minutes, the newscasters claimed that the nurse was invited to sit on the motorbike during a ceremony where the Health Ministry made a donation.
“Let me describe the photo. A certain nurse with large buttocks is seated on a motorbike that was donated to nurses by the Ministry of Health. I don’t know who suggested that the nurse should sit on the motorbike. This nurse is among those whose uniforms have been sewn to fit them tightly,” one of the newscasters, Nana Yaw Kesseh, claimed in the Akan language.
Even after it was suggested to him that the woman in the photo was a midwife who had saved a life and was being rewarded with the motorbike, the newscaster dismissed it. (minutes 58:00 – 58:13)
“That is not the case. I remember this story. The Minister had presented 30 motorbikes,” he insisted in the Akan language (minutes 58:14 – 58:30).”
The discussion was between minutes 49:50 to 59:16 of the bulletin which was streamed on Facebook.
Verification
To ascertain the origin of the photo, DUBAWA conducted a Google Reverse Image search and found two news publications using a very similar image.
These two publications date back to 2018 and told the story of a midwife who was being rewarded with a motorbike after delivering a pregnant woman in labor while on a Bolgatanga-bound passenger bus.
The publications gave the name of the midwife as Sophia Safia Sulemana.
DUBAWA found several other online publications, including a post on Facebook by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana, that corroborated the story. These publications can be found here, here, here, and here
In most of the publications identified by DUBAWA, the size of the woman’s buttocks was not as it is visually presented by Peace FM.
The photo that was used by some online publications had the signature of Leyla Images and the image can indeed be found on their Facebook page, among a host of others that were captured at the event.
Managing Health Editor & Blogger at Ghana Health Nest, Kelvin Odonkor, in a Facebook post, indicated that the photo used by Peace 104.3FM was “altered and used against the original.”
“The altered picture is made to let the back of the midwife appear larger just for diabolical reasons,” Kelvin Odonkor continued.
Conclusion
The said photo as displayed by Peace FM during its 6PM bulletin on Saturday, May 14, 2022 dates back to 2018 and has been manipulated.
