A Facebook user identified as Emmanuel Duolo has claimed in a Facebook post on August 10 that Unity Party Standard Bearer, Joseph Boakai had paid 50,000 to the Liberia Revenue Authority for the replacement of lost or damaged Biometric Voter Registration cards for affected people in the 15 counties.
Doulo posted: “Thanks to Amb. Joseph N. Boakai for paying 50k to LRA for NEC lost and damage ID Cards for the 15 Counties”.
This claim was made after the NEC announced the replacement of lost or damaged BVR cards process, stressing that it was to run from August 14 -19.
Local Voices Liberia as part of the iVerify Liberia project checked this claim and found it to be false and misleading.
To arrived at this, we contacted Mr. Danicius Kaihenneh Sengbeh, Manager for Communications at LRA, who clarified via an email that the LRA has not received payment of 50,000 from anyone for lost ID cards.
Wrote Mr. Sengbeh: “We have not found any fact related to your inquiry. If such payment was made, the LRA has yet to receive the same. We have not received a payment of US50,000 from anyone for lost ID Cards. We would be pleased if you shared with us any evidence of such payment.”
Claim: “Thanks to Amb. Joseph N. Boakai for paying 50k to LRA for NEC lost and damage ID Cards for the 15 Counties”.
Verdict: Misleading. There’s no evidence to show that the payment was made.
Conclusion 
Based on our check, we concluded that the assertion made by Emmanuel Duolo, claiming that Amb. Joseph Boakai made a 50,000 payment to the LRA for the replacement of lost or damaged ID cards for the 15 counties is false. There is no evidence that any payment was made to the LRA for such purpose by Amb. Boakai.
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.
