Claim: Video shows a young man shot in the mouth at Ejura
Source: Twitter user
Verdict: MISLEADING
Researched by Gifty Tracy Aminu
#DampareMustGo has been trending on Twitter in Ghana over the last 48 hours, as some social media users demand for the dismissal of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare.
This follows an alleged extra-judicial killing of a suspect, Albert Akwasi Donkor in Nkoranza, a community in the Bono East Region while in police custody.
As part of the heated online conversation, a video showing a young man shot in the mouth is being widely circulated on Twitter and portrayed as a shooting incident involving the police which happened in Ejura, in the Ashanti Region sometime last year – to feed the perception of callous police crowd-control strategy under the current leadership of the security agency.
The 12-second video was shared on May 18, 2022, with the caption “look at what Stray Bullets from the Police at Ejura did to the young man going to get food yet no one was held accountable #DampareMustGo.”
The video has so far been viewed close to thirty thousand times, retweeted more than 150 times and liked close to 400 times, while the discussions around #DampareMustGo have potentially reached more than 17 million people, according to Talkwalker – a Consumer Intelligence Acceleration platform.
This fact-check report sought to verify the accuracy of the Twitter post relating to the video.
Fact-check
A simple online search by GhanaFact showed that the incident did not happen in Ejura as captioned in the Tweet.
The young man seen in the video is now-deceased-18-year-old, Abdul Hakim Yakubu, who was hit by a stray bullet in Lamashegu in Tamale, in the Northern region of Ghana.
The incident which occurred on February 13, 2022, was during a clash between some disgruntled residents of Lamashegu and the police, following a misunderstanding between a driver and a police patrol team.
The driver who failed to heed calls by the police to stop was given a hot chase and shot at, as he drove to the Lamashegu chief’s palace for refuge. This infuriated the youth in the area, who reportedly pelted stones at the police and burnt lorry tires on the streets.
During the standoff, 18-year-old, Abdul Hakim Yakubu was hit by a stray bullet and declared dead on arrival at the Tamale Teaching Hospital, while 8 others were injured.
The Ghana Police Service in a press release on February 14, 2022, said the six police officers who were involved in the shooting incident had been interdicted.
Credible media organisations including JoyNews, Daily Graphic, CitiNewsroom, and 3news among others have reported the incident.
Meanwhile in Ejura in the Ashanti Region, the youth of the Dangombaline community also clashed with the police sometime last year following the alleged murder of social media activist and known government critic, Ibrahim Mohammed, aka Kaka, under bizarre circumstances at his residence.
The death of Kaka triggered a spontaneous demonstration on June 29, 2021, which further resulted in the death and injury of 6 persons. However, the current video that is being widely shared on Twitter has nothing to do with what happened in Ejura.
Verdict
The widely shared Twitter video is being MISLEADINGLY portrayed as an incident that happened in Ejura.
