Claim: Viral gay couple images at Independence Square were AI-generated
Source: Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor, Majority Chief Whip
Verdict: False
Researched by Alfa Shaban
During the 27th Sitting of the Ninth Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana (July 11, 2025), the Majority Chief Whip, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor, alleged that viral images of a pro-LGBTQ couple at Ghana’s Independence Square were AI-generated.
Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor said, “The matters that the First Deputy Minority Whip alluded to regarding the fact that two persons were seen kissing at the Independence Square are totally false.
“It was an AI-generated image posted by someone onto his social media handle, so, my brother Habib has no documents to stand on, predicate upon which he will be demanding that the Minister for Foreign Affairs be invited to speak to such matters and also to justify why we abstained from a certain vote at the UN,” the MP added while responding to Tolon Member of Parliament, Habib Iddrisu. (watch from 17:35 seconds onwards).
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In a follow-up comment, Habib challenged Dafeamekpor’s claim, asking for evidence that the images were AI-generated, but no evidence was adduced.
Were the said viral images AI-generated?
On June 25, 2025, Director of Diaspora Affairs at the Presidency, Kofi Okyere Darko, was accused on social media of posting images of a gay couple on his social media accounts. While his caption was not in support of their act, in response to the backlash that followed, KOD deleted the post.
Using Google Reverse Image Search, GhanaFact traced the three images to an Instagram page, Lue and Rue, posted on June 23, 2025.
Lue and Rue are a South African same-sex couple, who according to their post, had come to Ghana to show defiance to Ghana’s “attempt to pass an anti-LGBTQIA+ bill.” The post had 17 images of shots around the Independence Square in Accra.
The three images shared by the presidential staffer were the first, second and fourth images on the page of Lue and Rue.
Also, on the 24th and 25th of June, they posted different sets of images during visits to the Aburi Botanical Gardens and the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, respectively.
Dafeamekpor concedes after being confronted with the video
Following the publication of a Channel One TV article on Dafeamekpor’s claim that the viral images were AI-generated, an opposition member confronted the MP with a TikTok video posted on the official handle of the couple during their stay in Ghana.
“Let me admit that upon watching this video you have supplied, I am convinced that the earlier information I received about this foto (photo) being AI-generated is inaccurate,” the South Day MP wrote on his X page on July 13, 2025.
Verdict
Therefore, the images were real, not AI-generated.
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