FACT-CHECK: No evidence that former Prez Mahama made tribal comment following Volta floods

Claim: John Mahama makes tribal comment and calls out Akufo-Addo for ignoring the Volta region

Source: Social media

Verdict: FALSE

Researched by Gifty Tracy Aminu

A visual card showing a picture of former President John Mahama and a statement supposedly attributed to him has gone viral on social media platforms, including Twitter (X).

“Akufo-Addo does not want to come to Volta region to inspect the havoc of the spillage. If, it was (the) Ashanti region he would have rushed there. Are Ewes not human beings too? Are Asantes more human beings than ewes?” The statement on the visual card reads.

The flyer allegedly designed by an online platform – www.dailyinsightonline.com has generated lots of reactions on social media, including from an estranged member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Koku Anyidoho, who shared the card multiple times with different captions (here, here and here).

“These kinds of comments are not helpful. I am a proud Ewe and I feel very insulted by such comments. Ewes are not inferior to any other people and vice versa. Did he not sack Professor Awoonor as Chairman of the Council of State? Does he know how much that was an insult to Ewes?”Mr Anyidoho said in one of his posts.

“Respectfully Mr John Dramani Mahama, this is the most stupid statement you have made in your entire life. “Ashanti’s don’t like school, Gonja’s are not like Dagomba’s we are peaceful” etc are very reckless statements you’ve made but this is the most stupid of them all,” another social media user said.

This fact-check report seeks to verify whether the former President indeed made the statement.

Background

Flooding in parts of the Volta, Eastern and Greater Accra regions have dominated the news cycle over the past few days following the ongoing spillage of excess water in the Akosombo and Kpong Dams.

The spillage, which began on September 15, 2023, has displaced about 26,000 people in several communities living along the lower Volta basin of the Akosombo and Kpong dams.

The Government has set up an inter-ministerial committee to co-ordinate the State’s response as President Akufo-Addo, on October 16, 2023, visited the Volta region to sympathise with the victims of the flood. Other stakeholders including the Volta River Authority (VRA), National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Former President John Mahama and some private citizens have also visited the affected areas to offer relief items and show support for the victims.

However, a speech by President Akufo-Addo during his interaction with flood victims in the Volta region, has generated some controversy and backlash.

Fact-Check 

An online search of the website – www.dailyinsightonline.com – show that the platform as advertised at the bottom of the viral image cannot be reached.

But GhanaFact found another website, www.dailyinsightsonline.com,  that has published several news stories and has presence on social media including a Twitter/X account with the name Daily Insights GH, and has 1,218 followers and created in March 2021.

The Twitter/X account with the name Daily Insights GH shared the visual card at 6:25 a.m. on October 16, 2023,  and captioned “Politics: Ashantis are not better the than Ewes —John Mahama strikes the tribal card,” which has generated 25 comments, 17 reposts, 20 likes and 2,449 views.

Meanwhile, checks by GhanaFact show that no credible media organisation has reported the comment attributed to former President John Dramani Mahama.

The former President has also taken to his Facebook page to debunk the claim. “This is false and they know it!,” former President John Dramani Mahama said.

An attempt to trace the actors behind the online platform and the tenure of the domain name – dailyinsightsonline.com -using digital tool, WHOIS showed that the registrar’s data had been made private.

Verdict

The claim attributed to the former President is FALSE.