A statement purportedly made by Unity Party (UP) Standard-bearer Joseph Boakai to “recover stolen state assets” has surfaced on Facebook.
An excerpt of the statement shared by a Facebook user, RA Morris, reads: “I will establish and fully empower renowned anti-corruption czars, entrusting them with the critical responsibility of recovering stolen funds and ill-gotten properties from officials of the Weah Government.”
Rating Justification
To fact check whether the statement was released by Mr. Boakai, we contacted Unity Party’s Campaign Spokesman Mo Ali and Secretary Amos Tweh, through calls and text messages but the two UP officials did not respond to our calls and messages.
We the checked the official Facebook page of the UP and found a statement under the signature of the Party Secretary General Amos Tweh, clarifying that “the purported policy statement on corruption and all its content, which appear to particularly target the outgoing Weah administration, is false and misleading.”
The Party wrote: “The Unity Party has received news of a fake statement attributed to its Standard Bearer and President -elect of Liberia H.E Joseph Nyuma Boakai, making rounds on various social media platforms.
The Unity Party clarifies that the purported policy statement on corruption and all its content, which appears to particularly target the outgoing Weah administration, is false and misleading.
Also, another statement, which was shared by George Saah, the Media and Legal Officer in the Office of the UP Standard bearer clarifies that the “Office of the President- Elect of the Republic of Liberia wishes to make it categorically clear that it has not issued any policy statement.”
Conclusion
Based on these facts, we conclude that the policy statement attributed to UP standard bearer Joseph Nyumah Boakai on corruption is misleading.
The Unity Party Standard bearer has not made any policy statement since the announcement of preliminary results by the National Elections Commission. Mr. Boakai’s party has also issued a statement clarifying that the purported policy statement on corruption and all its content, which appears to particularly target the outgoing Weah administration, is false and misleading.
This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content.