Summary: Social media claim by Hon. Acaruos Gray that President-elect Joseph Boakai has purchased a US$1M property along the Roberts International Airport (RIA) highway and that renovation is ongoing is false. The photo of the property he posted belongs to Mr. Amin Modad. ThIS same photo was first posted to Facebook on August 30, 2020.
On Saturday, January 13, Montserrado County District #8 former Representative Acaruos Gray claimed that President-elect Joseph Boakai is renovating his newly acquired property along the Roberts International Airport (RIA) highway.
Fact Check Report By: : Siaway T. Miapue- [email protected]
Gray claimed that the property is worth US$1M, and that the cost of renovation/ furniture is US$1.1million. In his Saturday post, he promised to provide a photo to validate his assertions.
However, on Sunday, January 14, Hon. Gray posted a picture of a luxurious building depicting that it is the property acquired by President-elect Boakai
The Claim
Mr. Gray posted: “Joseph Boakai buys 1m USD property along RIA Road and renovation is ongoing for his early migration there. There’s a heavy security presence daily… Renovation/Furniture is 1.1m USD. Photos to follow and it’s indeed the real Animal Farm”.
Rating Justification
To fact-check these claims, we first viewed the official Facebook Page of President-elect Boakai but did not see any information about the assertions.
We then conducted a reverse image search and established that the photo of the luxurious building posted by Gray in his Facebook claim is not a recent picture.
Even though the photo was taken in Liberia, it was originally posted in 2020 by Shine Liberia – a Facebook blog – to highlight businesses and the latest investment in the country. In that post, the blog did not mention the owner of the property; however, in reaction to that 2020 post by Shine Liberia, Mr. Amin Modad – who is former Chairman of the Unity Party – commented under the post that the property was his.
Mr. Modad commented under the Shine Liberia post on August 30, 2020: “I’m not a government official. This is one of my personal buildings. It was completed in 2014…Built through honest hard work.”
To further verify this comment, we found under the 2020 post, our fact checker then contacted Mr. Modad via his Facebook and WhatsApp accounts. He replied through his WhatsApp and said the photo of the property posted by Mr. Gray is his property. He said there where he and his family currently live.
According to him, the building has not been renovated as claimed by Mr. Gray, but he has painted it as he always does after the rainy season for his family use.
Conclusion
Based on the findings, we therefore conclude that the claims by Hon. Acarous Gray that President-elect Joseph Boakai has secured for himself new property worth US$1m and that renovation/furniture is 1.1m is false.
The photo posted by Gray is the home of Amin Modad and his family. It was first posted to Facebook by Shine Liberia on August 30, 2020.
