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Claim: A Facebook user, Samai Kallon, has alleged on the official Facebook platform of the Truth Breakfast Show (TBS) that “The Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) has arrested Abraham Godsent Wheon.”
Verdict: Mostly False! AFL did not arrest Abraham Godsent Wheon, Assistant Defense Minister for Public Affairs, Sam Collins has clarified
Full Text
A post went viral on Social media (Facebook) on Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023, claiming that the Manager of Freedom FM and the host of the “Face the Issues” show on Freedom 87.9FM and TV (live Facebook feed), Abraham Godsent Wheon has been arrested by the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL).
This post came days after the station’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Deputy National Security Agency (NSA) director, Samy Siryon, was arrested by the AFL and taken into the military barracks for questioning.
Here is a screenshot of the post made by Samai Kallon on the Facebook platform of the Truth Breakfast Show (TBS).
According to the Fage Africa Newspaper, the station, through its manager and host of the “Face the Issues” program, Abraham Godsent Wheon, has been making allegations against AFL Chief of Staff, Major General Prince Charles Johnson, as being an operative of the main opposition Unity Party.
The Front-Page Africa newspaper reported, “During his regular talk show this week, Mr Abraham Wheon of Freedom FM insinuated that members of the Armed Forces did not vote for President George Weah in the Oct. 10 presidential elections due to the ill-treatment they had been getting from the Chief of Staff, Major- Gen. Prince C. Johnson, III.”
Verification
With the growing concern of military takeover in Africa, DUBAWA thought it necessary to probe this claim and ascertain its truth.
To begin with, the researcher reached out to the claimant to provide the source or evidence for his claim, but the claimant blocked the researcher instead, as seen in the screenshot below
DUBAWA also discovered that the claimant had taken down the post and deleted his entire Facebook account, thus making it difficult to be reached.
The researcher tracked the media houses to see if the news of the alleged arrest of Abraham Godsent Wheon had been reported, but none of the platforms had made any such report.
DUBAWA then contacted Sam Collins, the Assistant Minister for Public Affairs of the Ministry of National Defense, where the AFL directly falls.
Assistant Minister Collins said that the AFL or the Ministry of National Defense (MoD) is not interested in tampering with the freedom the Liberian media is enjoying under the Weah administration.
Assistant Minister Collins further said, “Another Liberia fake News. The MoD has a strong relationship with the Liberian media, and we wish to keep it in such a manner.”
DUBAWA again contacted Mr Abraham Godsent Wheon via WhatsApp about whether he was arrested by the AFL but did not reply to the researcher despite the sign that he was active online and saw the text message sent to him.
Below is a screenshot of the message sent to Mr Wheon
Conclusion
Based on all of the searches conducted by DUBAWA and the clarifications provided by the assistant Minister of the Ministry of National Defense, Sam Collins, the claim by the AFL regarding the arrest of Abraham Wheon is false.
