Claim: John Mahama promises to pay allowances to every Ghanaian Child
Source: Visual card
Verdict: FALSE
Researched by Gifty Tracy Aminu
Has John Mahama promised to pay an allowance to every Ghanaian child if elected President?
That is according to a visual card showing the picture of the former president and a message that said: “I will pay allowance to every Ghanaian child from age 2 to 18 in my next government.”
The flyer has been shared by the Twitter account @TPatriots, which is an account known to publish content in support of the party in government, the New Patriotic Party.
This fact-check report seeks to verify the claim attributed to the former President.
Fact-Check
Our checks show the Tweet was first published by an imposter account on Twitter – @_JDMahama – which has been set up to look like the original account of the former president – @JDMahama.
Meanwhile, the imposter Twitter account has the image of the former President as its profile picture similar to what has been used on the official Twitter page of former President John Dramani Mahama.
Further checks by GhanaFact showed another Twitter account @Tein_UmaT published the same flyer, on the same day and at the same time as @TPatriots, which is very suspicious and could potentially mean they are acting in concert.
Our checks show the imposter X/Twitter account was created on Wednesday, December 30, 2020, at 21:54:47. (9:54:47 PM, GMT) with the ID 1344401519450464257, and clearly labelled as a Parody Account.
However, the verified Twitter/X account of the former President was created on Monday, July 30, 2012, at 20:02:44 (8:02:44 PM, GMT). The Twitter account of the former President has the ID 726748106, with 2,263,721 followers, and it is identified as the “Official account of H.E. John Dramani Mahama, Former President of the Republic of Ghana (2012- 2017).”
Parody Account Left/ Official Account Right
Verdict
The claim is false and the flyer is fake.