Claim: Viral video shows the arrest of a suspect involved in the Ablekuma robbery case
Source: Viral video
Verdict:FALSE
Researched by Sedem Kwasigah
A TikTok video showing the arrest of a young man by some police officers is being portrayed on WhatsApp as one of the armed robbers in the Ablekuma robbery incident, which occurred on June 22, 2023.
The video shared on WhatsApp and tagged “forwarded many times” shows a young man with dreadlocks in the bucket of a pickup truck, surrounded by a number of police officers while some bystanders make efforts to touch him.
A screenshot of the TikTok video that has been tagged by WhatsApp as forwarded many times
The 31 seconds long video comes with an accompanying text: “The guy who shot and killed the policeman in the bullion van has been arrested this morning”.
This fact-check report seeks to verify the accuracy of the claim.
Background
On June 22, 2023, a four-member armed gang attacked a bullion van at a pump station at Ablekuma Fanmilk – which led to the death of a police escort assigned to guard the bullion van.
The Ghana Police Service has since commenced investigations to apprehend the preparators and has asked the public to volunteer information that would lead to the arrest of the armed robbers.
“The Police are on a manhunt to arrest a gang of four robbers who attacked a bullion van at Ablekuma Fanmilk, a suburb of Accra and shot the Police escort who has unfortunately passed on,” a statement signed by the Service said.
Fact-check
GhanaFact successfully traced the viral WhatsApp video which was first uploaded by a TikTok account with the username @brapulisic on April 26, 2023 – about two months before the robbery incident.
A screengrab of the video published on TikTok
“First guy to invade pitch in Kumasi,” the TikTok account with the username @brapulisic said in a post under the video.
GhanaFact’s search findings showed the person seen in video was a pitch invader during a football match between the Black Stars of Ghana and Angola at the Baba Yara sports stadium in Kumasi on March 23, 2023.
The findings by GhanaFact can be crosschecked on the verified YouTube channels of news outlets in Ghana, TV3 and GhanaWeb (here and here) which published videos of the arrest of the pitch invader on March 23, 2023.
Pitch invader arrested on the football field (LEFT)/ Pitch invader in the bucket of a pickup truck (RIGHT)
Meanwhile, two suspects have been arrested by the Ghana Police Service as of July 3,2023 and been arraigned before the Kaneshie district court – the suspects have been remanded into police custody after being charged with counts of conspiracy to commit murder and murder (here and here).
The police administration is yet to make public the pictures and names of the two suspects that have been arrested in connection to the Ablekuma robbery incident which has led to the killing of a police officer.
Verdict
Therefore, the viral WhatsApp video is being MISLEADINGLY portrayed and the claim is FALSE.
