{"id":21244,"date":"2025-01-08T14:55:43","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T13:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=21244"},"modified":"2025-01-08T18:18:40","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T17:18:40","slug":"true-representative-koon-was-invited-by-ghanas-speaker-of-parliament-for-inauguration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/true-representative-koon-was-invited-by-ghanas-speaker-of-parliament-for-inauguration\/","title":{"rendered":"True! Representative Koon was invited by Ghana\u2019s Speaker of Parliament for inauguration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim:<\/strong> OKFM 99.5, a local radio station in Liberia has said Ghana\u2019s Speaker officially invited Representative Richard Koon for the Inauguration of Ghana\u2019s president. Koon is one of the two personalities holding himself out as the legitimate Speaker of the Liberian Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Verdict:<\/strong> Checks by DUBAWA from the protocol department of Ghana, the inauguration’s organisers, indicate Richard Koon was officially invited by the Speaker of Ghana\u2019s Parliament, Alban Bagbin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The controversy over who the official and legitimate Speaker of the Liberian Legislature is has taken a different twist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, January 6, 2025, the social media space in Liberia was flooded with communication (official invitation) believed to have come from the office of the Ghanaian Speaker of Parliament to one of those claiming the legitimacy of being the official head of the Liberian House of Representatives, Representative Richard Nagbe Koon<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those posting such information was a local radio station, OKFM 99.5<\/a>,. The station reported that Representative Koon, who heads the members of the \u2018Majority Bloc\u2019 in the ongoing crisis within the House of Representatives of Liberia, was officially invited to the inauguration ceremony of Ghana\u2019s new president, John Mahama, and the opening of the ninth Parliament in Ghana\u2019s fourth republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The station took to its Facebook page<\/a> saying, \u201cBreaking,\u201d and posted the full details of the invitation letter to representative Koon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

There have since been claims and counterclaims about the authenticity of the invitation. Whilst some think it is original, as can be seen here<\/a>, and here<\/a>, others believe it to be fake, as seen here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst DUBAWA cannot say on authority who the legitimate Speaker is, getting validation from countries and other international organisations is considered a big deal to either of the two factions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA, therefore, decided to find out if the viral letter was authentic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

To verify the legitimacy of this communication, the researcher quickly contacted the Speaker\u2019s office in Ghana. One of the officers there, David Damoah, confirmed to DUBAWA that the letter was authentic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s correct according to my protocol department,\u201d he said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be sure, DUBAWA further monitored the inauguration proceedings. In the picture below, Representative Koon is seen shaking hands with Liberia\u2019s head of delegation to the Economy Community of West African States (ECOWAS) parliament, Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Photo source: Senator Snowe’s <\/strong>Facebook page<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Based on the authentication provided by the Speaker\u2019s office in Ghana, the communication parading social media (Facebook) in Liberia that Representative Richard Nagbe Koon, speaker of the \u201cMajority Bloc\u201d of the Liberian parliament was invited by the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana to attend the inauguration of President John Mahama is true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: OKFM 99.5, a local radio station in Liberia has said Ghana\u2019s Speaker officially invited Representative Richard Koon for the Inauguration of Ghana\u2019s president. Koon is one of the two personalities holding himself out as the legitimate Speaker of the Liberian Parliament. Verdict: Checks by DUBAWA from the protocol department of Ghana, the inauguration’s organisers, indicate Richard Koon was officially invited by the Speaker of Ghana\u2019s Parliament, Alban Bagbin. Full Text The controversy over who the official and legitimate Speaker of the Liberian Legislature is has taken a different twist. On Monday, January 6, 2025, the social media space in Liberia was flooded with communication (official invitation) believed to have come from the office of the Ghanaian Speaker of Parliament to one of those claiming the legitimacy of being the official head of the Liberian House of Representatives, Representative Richard Nagbe Koon. Among those posting such information was a local radio station, OKFM 99.5,. The station reported that Representative Koon, who heads the members of the \u2018Majority Bloc\u2019 in the ongoing crisis within the House of Representatives of Liberia, was officially invited to the inauguration ceremony of Ghana\u2019s new president, John Mahama, and the opening of the ninth Parliament in Ghana\u2019s fourth republic. The station took to its Facebook page saying, \u201cBreaking,\u201d and posted the full details of the invitation letter to representative Koon.  There have since been claims and counterclaims about the authenticity of the invitation. Whilst some think it is original, as can be seen here, and here, others believe it to be fake, as seen here Whilst DUBAWA cannot say on authority who the legitimate Speaker is, getting validation from countries and other international organisations is considered a big deal to either of the two factions. DUBAWA, therefore, decided to find out if the viral letter was authentic. Verification To verify the legitimacy of this communication, the researcher quickly contacted the Speaker\u2019s office in Ghana. One of the officers there, David Damoah, confirmed to DUBAWA that the letter was authentic. \u201cIt\u2019s correct according to my protocol department,\u201d he said.   To be sure, DUBAWA further monitored the inauguration proceedings. In the picture below, Representative Koon is seen shaking hands with Liberia\u2019s head of delegation to the Economy Community of West African States (ECOWAS) parliament, Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe. Photo source: Senator Snowe’s Facebook page Conclusion Based on the authentication provided by the Speaker\u2019s office in Ghana, the communication parading social media (Facebook) in Liberia that Representative Richard Nagbe Koon, speaker of the \u201cMajority Bloc\u201d of the Liberian parliament was invited by the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana to attend the inauguration of President John Mahama is true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21245,"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":[1571,4,3812,3815,1960],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[3532],"class_list":["post-21244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-check","category-featured","category-headline","category-homepage","category-liberia"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-5wE","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":3532,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"jackson-c-clay-jr","display_name":"Jackson C. Clay Jr.","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4a1a3a0ffb70288fc47151919d35bfbf84da6ab614d08ddda46c3d772f23f39b?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Photo-source-Ok-Fm-Facebook.jpg?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21244"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21247,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21244\/revisions\/21247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21244"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=21244"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=21244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}