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Claim: An X user claims that his cousin discovered a large gold deposit, but the Ghanaian government moved to seize it and threatened to revoke his cousin’s citizenship.
Verdict: False. There is no credible evidence that the Ghanaian government made any such threat against a private individual. DUBAWA’s checks show that the photos used to support the story are not from Ghana.
Full Text
Ghana is among the world’s leading gold producers, yet its mining industry has been plagued by illegal mining, popularly known as ‘galamsey.’ Several environmental and social concerns, such as water pollution, violent conflicts in mining communities, and deforestation, have been linked to the problem of illegal mining, drawing mass media coverage.
In recent times, a debate has emerged over the government’s crackdown on illegal mining by a special task force.
A viral post published by X claims that the government has moved to seize a large deposit of raw gold discovered by an individual at a galamsey site. The post further alleged that when the individual refused compensation in exchange for the gold, the government threatened to revoke their citizenship.
The post has reached over 500,000 users, with many of them expressing anger at the government and sympathy for the alleged victim.
Given the high virality of these claims and the potential to inflame public distrust, DUBAWA investigated.
Verification
DUBAWA’s verification began by conducting reverse image searches of all four images accompanying the two claims on Google. The searches were conducted on each image, arranged as Image 1 and Image 2.
The results showed that the images being used as evidence were not taken in Ghana and have appeared elsewhere online in unrelated contexts.
Image 1: This image was traced to the state of Nevada, US. As this 2017 Pinterest image suggests, the photo was taken at the Round Mountain Mine in Nye County. Publications here and here in 2016 also confirm.
Image 2: The image features “The Providence Nugget,” a gold nugget discovered in Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, in 2004.
This strongly undermines the credibility of the narratives, since the photos were presented in a way that suggested that they were connected to the alleged events in Ghana.
When DUBAWA contacted the Media Relations Officer for Ghana’s Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Paa Kwesi Schandorf, for comments about the claims, he responded that he “had no idea at all” about any such thing happening.
Further searches by DUBAWA found no verifiable media reports supporting the claim that the Ghanaian government is threatening to revoke citizenship for refusing to surrender gold discovered at a mining site. Citizenship revocation is an extraordinary legal measure that typically involves constitutional and administrative procedures, making it unlikely that such an incident could occur without public documentation, court action, or wider reporting. According to Ghana’s constitution, the Attorney-General can revoke a person’s citizenship (except for citizenship acquired by birth) under certain conditions related to national security, public interest, and public morality.
Conclusion
Based on the above, DUBAWA finds no evidence supporting the viral claims that the Ghanaian government seized a large gold deposit from a miner and threatened to revoke her citizenship.
