{"id":21220,"date":"2025-01-07T21:15:08","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T20:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=21220"},"modified":"2025-01-07T21:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T20:15:11","slug":"representative-richard-koon-did-not-instruct-police-ig-to-rid-fonati-koffas-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/representative-richard-koon-did-not-instruct-police-ig-to-rid-fonati-koffas-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Representative Richard Koon did not instruct Police IG to rid Fonati Koffa\u2019s office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim:<\/strong> An online blog \u201cLOM News\u201d alleges<\/a> that Representative Richard Koon instructed Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman to rid embattled speaker Fonati Koffa’s office.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Verdict:<\/strong> False! Representative Richard Koon did not instruct Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman to rid the office of embattled speaker Fonati Koffa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Text<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An online blog \u201cLOM News\u201d on Friday, January 3, 2024, posted on its social media page that Representative Richard Koon instructed Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman to rid the office of embattled speaker Fonati Koffa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRep. Richard Koon has instructed Gregory Coleman to rid the office of speaker Hon. J. Fonati Koffa after Kolleh sent a threatening message to speaker Koffa days ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post generated 31 comments, two shares, and 25 likes up to our last view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the post’s comment section, one commenter expressed concern over the source of the information. At the same time, another indicated that only the Ministry of Justice through the court has the power to give such a mandate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most commenters expressed frustration over the increased misuse of social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis other person drank some of the expired liquor. Must you write nonsense?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Liberia, as soon as you can afford 100 USD for a phone, boom, you are a blogger right there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaker Fonati Koffa<\/a> is the speaker of the 55th legislature and Richard Koon<\/a> is the head and speaker of the majority bloc at the House of Representatives, who has expressed a vote of no confidence in Koffa\u2019s leadership thereby demanding his resignation as speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the embattled speaker has since refused to resign.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA decided to verify the claim as part of an effort to counter misinformation and disinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA first contacted the poster \u201cLOM News\u201d to provide evidence to back their claim, but they refused to respond to our inquiries. LOM News did not respond to commenters\u2019 concerns in the comment section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our researcher also contacted the Liberia National Police spokesperson<\/a>, Cecelia G. Clarke, who described the claim as \u201cuntrue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cecelia Clarke added that the photo used by the poster was taken during the fire<\/a> incident at the capitol. Early Wednesday of December 18, 2024, Liberans, especially residents of the capitol Monrovia, woke up to thick black smoke and flames rising from the capitol building. The cause of the fire remains unknown, as the Liberia National Police launched an<\/a> investigation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA did not find any evidence that the Police Inspector General was instructed to raid the office of the embattled speaker, while the Police spokesperson denied the claim as false.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: An online blog \u201cLOM News\u201d alleges that Representative Richard Koon instructed Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman to rid embattled speaker Fonati Koffa’s office. Verdict: False! Representative Richard Koon did not instruct Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman to rid the office of embattled speaker Fonati Koffa. Full Text An online blog \u201cLOM News\u201d on Friday, January 3, 2024, posted on its social media page that Representative Richard Koon instructed Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman to rid the office of embattled speaker Fonati Koffa. \u201cRep. Richard Koon has instructed Gregory Coleman to rid the office of speaker Hon. J. Fonati Koffa after Kolleh sent a threatening message to speaker Koffa days ago.\u201d The post generated 31 comments, two shares, and 25 likes up to our last view. In the post’s comment section, one commenter expressed concern over the source of the information. At the same time, another indicated that only the Ministry of Justice through the court has the power to give such a mandate. Most commenters expressed frustration over the increased misuse of social media. \u201cThis other person drank some of the expired liquor. Must you write nonsense?\u201d \u201cIn Liberia, as soon as you can afford 100 USD for a phone, boom, you are a blogger right there.\u201d Speaker Fonati Koffa is the speaker of the 55th legislature and Richard Koon is the head and speaker of the majority bloc at the House of Representatives, who has expressed a vote of no confidence in Koffa\u2019s leadership thereby demanding his resignation as speaker. But the embattled speaker has since refused to resign. DUBAWA decided to verify the claim as part of an effort to counter misinformation and disinformation. Verification DUBAWA first contacted the poster \u201cLOM News\u201d to provide evidence to back their claim, but they refused to respond to our inquiries. LOM News did not respond to commenters\u2019 concerns in the comment section. Our researcher also contacted the Liberia National Police spokesperson, Cecelia G. Clarke, who described the claim as \u201cuntrue.\u201d Cecelia Clarke added that the photo used by the poster was taken during the fire incident at the capitol. Early Wednesday of December 18, 2024, Liberans, especially residents of the capitol Monrovia, woke up to thick black smoke and flames rising from the capitol building. The cause of the fire remains unknown, as the Liberia National Police launched an investigation.  Conclusion DUBAWA did not find any evidence that the Police Inspector General was instructed to raid the office of the embattled speaker, while the Police spokesperson denied the claim as false.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1960,4,3815],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[4422],"class_list":["post-21220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liberia","category-featured","category-homepage"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-5wg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":4422,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"lee-n-monjue","display_name":"Lee N. 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