Claim: Alban Bagbin visits Jubilee House over 4 vacant parliamentary seats controversy 

Source: Viral video

Verdict: FALSE

Researched by Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban

An old video of Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, at the Jubilee House has resurfaced on X and is being portrayed as a recent visit to the presidency amid the impasse between Parliament and the Supreme Court.

On October 21, 2024, GhanaFact’s attention was drawn to the video after it was shared on X by some political activists. In the video, Speaker Bagbin and some Members of Parliament (MPs) are seen walking towards the entrance of the Jubilee House, Ghana’s presidential complex.

One of the activists, shared the video with the caption; “Jubilee house is hot!!! As of yesterday, the Speaker was invited together with his officials [parliamentary legal counsel] trying hard to do backdoor pleading with the speaker at the behest of the president. … What a pity.”

Another social media user, MP Kwarteng shared the same video (now deleted but archived here) with a caption that read: “TIP-TOE..!! Speaker Bagbin was allegedly invited to the Jubilee House at behest of the President for backdoor pleading..! I do not want to believe that tho!”

Background

Between October 15 and October 22, 2024, Ghana was plunged into what some have called a legislative crisis.

The Speaker of Parliament’s ruling that four seats had become vacant on October 17 was challenged and a stay order by the Supreme Court was secured less than 24 hours later.

However, four days after the stay order, on October 22, 2024, Speaker Bagbin adjourned sitting indefinitely. 

This fact-check seeks to verify whether or not Speaker Alban Bagbin was invited to the Jubilee House.

Fact-Check

Checks by GhanaFact found the video first emerged in July and is now being mischaracterised on social media.

On the Parliament of Ghana’s Facebook page, our team of researchers traced another version of the viral video shared on July 4, 2024, showing the same actors in another part of the presidency.

Further checks on TikTok showed a user of the social media platform with the handle @The1957news, shared the same video that has gone viral on July 31, 2024, with the caption: “Leadership of Parliament visits President Akufo Addo.” 

The same video has been found to be what is being misleadingly shared by political activists on X. 

Another piece of evidence to debunk the claim on X is that Parliament also posted over 50 photos of Bagbin’s visit to the presidency in early July 2024 with a caption; “Speaker Bagbin Presents Democracy Cup To President Akuffo Addo, Celebrating 30 Years Of Ghana’s Parliamentary Democracy.” This event was published by the state-owned  newspaper, Daily Graphic. 

Meanwhile, in the wake of the speculation, Parliament has also issued a statement asking the public to dismiss reports that Bagbin had held a meeting at the Jubilee House. The statement was issued on October 22, 2024, and signed by a Deputy Director for Media Relations, Dr Lawrence Kwarteng-Ashia.

“Parliament states without equivocation that there is no iota of truth in the insinuation in the circulated video. The video in question was taken on 4th July 2024, when the Rt. Hon. Speaker led a delegation to present the maiden Democracy Cup to the President. The attempt to wrongly label the video and twist facts to impugn the integrity of the Rt. Hon. Speaker and Parliament is not only disingenuous but unfortunate,” the statement noted.

Verdict: 

The claim is false.