|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Claim: Joyce Bawah Mogtari, a Spokesperson of Ghana’s ex-President John Mahama, has blamed the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the inability to explain the party’s 24-hour economic policy, an X user has alleged.
Verdict: False. DUBAWA’s search has revealed that Joyce did not make the comment attributed to her. Reacting to the claim on X (formerly Twitter), the ex-Ghanaian minister described it as “vile and cheap propaganda, circulated to mislead the public.” Also, Accra-based TV3, which has its logo on the flyer, told DUBAWA that their team had not created it.
Full Text
An X user has shared a flyer in which Joyce Bawah Mogtari, the Spokesperson of Ghana’s ex-President John Mahama, allegedly said the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is unable to explain its 24-hour campaign policy because of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
“Blame the NPP for our inability to explain the 24-hour economy [policy],” Joyce reportedly said.
The 24-hour economy is a proposed economic policy of John Mahama, the flagbearer of the opposition NDC, to ensure that businesses across various sectors of Ghana’s economy operate both at night and during the day.
The X account shared the claim and described itself as the “communication platform to broadcast the outcome of programs, policies, and projects of the New Patriotic Party.”
Data available on X showed the account has 1,285 followers, including the Managing Director of State Housing Company, Kwabena Ampofo Appiah, the Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong, and the Accra-based think tank Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP).
Also, available data shows that the post had 1,427 views as of June 22, 2024. See here and here for the claim as shared by other X users with over 13,234 views.
DUBAWA decided to probe the claim due to its virality on social media in West Africa.
Verification
Investigations conducted by DUBAWA showed Joyce Bawah Motgari, the spokesperson of Ghana’s ex-President John Mahama, did not make the comment attributed to her.
Reacting to the claim on X on June 20, 2024, the former Ghanaian Deputy Transport Minister encouraged her supporters to disregard the flyer and its content. “Kindly ignore it and treat it with the contempt it deserves,” she said.
She wrote on X, “Even though I circulated the said infograph and stamped same as fake, it appears that the NPP disinformation ‘agency’ has a devious agenda, the said article is still tending on various social media platforms.”
According to Joyce, the flyer is “vile and cheap propaganda, circulated to mislead the public.”
DUBAWA contacted Roland Walker, a senior journalist with Accra-based TV3, to find out whether their team created the flyer, which had the logos of the parent media group’s platforms, Media General.
However, Mr Walker told DUBAWA the flyer and its content were “fake.” He later shared the flyer with the word “fake” boldly embossed across it.
DUBAWA later contacted the managers of the X account that shared the viral flyer to determine the source of the claim, but they have yet to respond to the inquiry.
Conclusion
It is, therefore, not true that Joyce Bawah Mogtari, the Spokesperson of Ghana’s ex-president, John Mahama, has blamed the country’s governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) for their inability to explain the 24-hour economic policy.
