Franklin Cudjoe did not criticise Ghana’s Electoral Commission

Claim: Franklin Cudjoe is reported to have said that the withdrawal by Ghana’s Electoral Commission from supervising May 13, 2023, Presidential primaries of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was “politically motivated and had nothing to do with” the law.  

Verdict: False. DUBAWA’s checks have revealed Mr Cudjoe did not author the post that has gone viral on Facebook. Some people who shared it admitted they did not get it from him. Additionally, the think-tank leader has issued a disclaimer on his Facebook wall, urging the public to “ignore the text” found to be riddled with grammatical errors.

Full Text

A post that has gone viral on Facebook and which is purportedly authored by the President of the think-tank IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, claims the decision by Ghana’s electoral body to withdraw from the Presidential primaries of the opposition National Democratic Congress was “politically motivated.”

The NDC is expected to elect its presidential and parliamentary candidates on Saturday, May 13, 2023, to lead the party during the 2024 General Election. 

However, one of the aspiring presidential candidates, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, has gone to court seeking to injunct the election due to concerns about the party’s delegates’ list and the lack of transparency.

The electoral body has asked the NDC to resolve its internal disagreements and outstanding legal issues before it can supervise the party’s elections.

“Jean Mensah [Electoral Commission boss] and her EC must be ready to live by the precedent it set today by pulling out of the NDC’s election because of an application for an injunction. The decision was politically motivated and had nothing to do with law,” Mr Cudjoe said in the post.

See the post here, here, here, here, here, here here, here, here and here.

Due to the heightened interest that the post has generated on Facebook, and the potential to sow a seed of discord between the NDC and the Electoral Commission, DUBAWA decided to fact-check the truth of the claim.

Verification

DUBAWA first checked the social media pages of the President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, to see if it would find the viral post. There was no such post.

However, it found a disclaimer on the post in which he  advised Ghanaians to “ignore the text.”

According to him, the post, riddled with grammatical mistakes, is not coming from him. 

“I do not write such bad grammar,” he wrote on his Facebook wall.

When contacted by DUBAWA, the think-tank leader confirmed he did not author the purported Facebook post, saying he would have owned up if he did.

DUBAWA reached out to some of the people who shared the purported post on their Facebook walls. While some said they copied the post from their friends’ Facebook walls, others claimed they got it from their WhatsApp groups.

However, the people DUBAWA contacted promised to delete the posts from their Facebook walls. See this Facebook user who has deleted the post he shared.

Also, DUBAWA conducted a Google keyword search to find out if there are news reports and other relevant articles attributing the purported post to Mr Cudjoe. 

However, the search results showed no such data is available online.

Conclusion

The Facebook post claiming the President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has criticised Ghana’s Electoral Commission for pulling out of the presidential primaries of the opposition National Democratic Congress is fake.

The purported post was not authored by Mr Cudjoe, who has issued a disclaimer to the general public to disregard the content. DUBAWA can also confirm that some people who shared the purported post on their Facebook walls have deleted it.