Summary: An image of what appears to be a page of a newspaper is trending on social media with claims that Ghana President has complained the Liberian President to the ECOWAS parliament over a midnight visit Mr. Joseph Boakai paid to his country. After thorough verification, we found that the content is fake and misleading.
Context
President Joseph Nyumah Boakai recently returned from Ghana, where, according to the Executive Mansion, he had meetings with members of the Ghanian Government. But on February 17, an image resembling a newspaper page surfaced on social media with the headline: “The Ghanaian President complained Liberia’s President to the ECOWAS parliament over midnight visit to his country.”
The article alleges that President Boakai was caught twice in Ghana overnight without an invitation, prompting concerns expressed by President Akufo-Addo at an ECOWAS parliament meeting regarding breach of protocol.
The Claim
The exact words on the purported news page reads: “The Ghanaian President complained Liberian President to ECOWAS parliament over midnight visit to his country (twice).”
Rating justification
To fact-check this claim, we thoroughly reviewed the Executive Mansion website looking for news releases about Mr. Boakai’s visit to Ghana since taking over as President and found that he has made one visit to the West African country on February 13, 2024.
We also checked for news articles and press releases about President Akufo-Addo’s purported complaint to Ecowas Parliament about the Liberian President’s abrupt entry to his country. We found no news report or press release.
We did a thorough check of the website of the Ghana Presidency but found no information regarding a complaint against President Boakai.
We then checked the official website of ECOWAS Parliament and Facebook page but dd not find any information.
A further surfing of the internet by checking major Ghanaian news websites like Ghana Web, Myjoyonline, Ghana Graphic, Graphic Online, Ghana Times show no result. There are no reports in relation to a complaint against President Boakai.
On Saturday, February 17, the Ghanaian Embassy in Monrovia shared an official release through its official Facebook page, urging the general public of the Republic of Liberia to disregard the “fake news or false statement” that is said to have been made by the Ghanaian President against the Liberian President at the ECOWAS parliament.
Conclusion
Based the evidence cited above, we conclude that the claim being shared on social media that the President of Ghana has complained the Liberian leader to ECOWAS Parliament for visiting his country “overnight” is fake.
There has been no authentic publication from ECOWAS, the Ghanaian media, the Office of the Ghanaian President, or Liberia’s Executive Mansion stating anything of such. Furthermore, Ghana’s Embassy in Monrovia has debunked this claim.