On September 26, 2023, Liberian journalist based in Europe James Goodday Flomo made a Facebook post about the condition of Lofa road admits President George Weah visit to the county. In the Facebook post, James shared a photo in which a vehicle is being pulled by a road building equipment from a deep pit of mud that covered a road. He claimed that it was an event that happened during the President trip to Lofa.
The Claim
He wrote: “Bad Road Medicine. Lofa Road taught them real life lesson. Share this picture (Post) let everyone see what’s happening to Bad Road Medicine”.
“Bad Road Medicine” is a name given to President George Weah by his supporters to describe the road development interventions his government has made.
After James made the Facebook post on September 25, 2023, many other Facebook users also shared the photo claiming that it was an image taken from the President’s trip to Lofa.
Some newspapers also shared the photo in articles it published days after journalist Flomo made the Facebook post. These articles can be seen here, here and here.
Rating Justification
To fact check the photo James shared in his Facebook post, we first conducted multiple reverse image search on the photo.
Our search revealed the news articles which shared the photo and many other photos of bad roads in Liberia that did not look similar to the photo journalist James shared in his post.
Further search of the photo shows that the photo James claims was from Lofa road was earlier shared by Unity Party campaign spokesman Mo Ali on September 23, 2023 – that two days before the journalist made the Facebook post.
Mo claimed that the photo was from the road leading to Grand Kru county in the southeast.
Robert Kpadeh, who is the Communication consultant to the Unity Party campaign, also shared the same photo on September 23, 2023 claiming that it was the motorcade of the Pro-Tempore of the Liberian Senate Albert Chie being pulled from the deep mud that littered the horrible roads in the Southeast.
Kpadeh claimed in the Facebook post that the photo was from the Pro-Temp trip to Grand Kru County.
Our research of the photo also shows that a Facebook group named Rescue Mission Media Coordination also shared the same photo in a Facebook group called JNB Tact Team.
The Facebook post, which was made on September 23, 2023, also states that the photo was from a road trip of the Senate Pro-Temp to Grand Kru county.
Protemp C hie is seeking reelection in as senator of Grand Kru County in the elections schedule for October 10, 2023.
Also, both the Executive Masion Facebook and LNTV Facebook pages shared posts announcing that the President began his trip to Lofa County on September 25, 2023 –two days after picture surfaced online.
Conclusion
Based on these facts, we therefore conclude that the photo shared by journalist James Goodday Flomo in the Facebook post which was also shared by some newspapers in Monrovia is not a photo taken from President Weah’s recent visit to Lofa county. The exact photo surfaced online some days ago with the posters claiming that it was a photo of the southeast road. The content was misleading.
Local Voices Liberia, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, has implemented the iVerify Liberia system with the objective of strengthening capacities to address threats to information integrity, especially in view of the upcoming 2023 elections, to ensure all Liberian citizens have access to credible, reliable and verified information, everywhere and at all times.
This initiative is funded by Irish Aid, Embassy of Sweden in Monrovia, European Union Delegation in Liberia and the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund. The donors have no say in the production of this fact check report.
