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Claim: “Former Representative Candidate for Electoral District #1 in Grand Gedeh County was dragged, beaten, and taken to jail for double voting in Zwedru,” writes Bigpapa News, a social media page.
Verdict: Misleading. Independent verifications with police authorities in the county have denied the claim. The suspect has also told DUBAWA he was never arrested for double voting.
Full Text
A social media news blog, “Bigpapa News,” has alleged that a former representative in Grand Gedeh District #1, Mr Festus Saydee, has been “dragged, beaten, and taken to jail for double voting in Zwedru.”
The claim has ignited some interest and controversy on social media.
Given the seriousness of the allegation, DUBAWA decided to investigate it.
Verifications
To verify this, DUBAWA placed calls to the Assistant Commissioner of Police in the county, who said:
“I am not aware of that report,” said Commissioner Gberyan. “We did not arrest anyone or candidate in this county for voting twice.”
Rather, Saydee was arrested over allegations he was loitering and causing a disturbance at his assigned polling centre, the police commissioner stated.
The accused, Mr Saydee, in a telephone interview, clarified that the police never arrested him for double voting.
“It is misleading, far from the reality, and it’s from those devils in disguise,” said Saydee, who goes by the Facebook name Destine Sonofman.
He narrated that he was watching the poll at polling place room 2 15074 when the police arrested him following an altercation with some men, adding, “Without asking for the subject matter [they arrested me] but only later on justified that they did what they did to protect me from those guys who attacked me on my assignment area.”
Conclusion
Given the evidence found by DUBAWA, the ‘Bigpapa News’ assertion is misleading because the suspect was arrested but not for double voting.
