CLAIM: “Execute and barbecue any cattle seen on the streets of Ghana. And I command the immediate arrest of any herdsman seen parading cattle on the streets of Ghana… This is not Nigeria: Ghana President: Akufo-Ado.”
CONCLUSION: FALSE
EVIDENCE: Government officials at the Communication Directorate at Presidency and Ministry of Information have denied the claim saying the President has and will never say that anywhere
FULL TEXT:
An image which claimed that President Nana Akufo-Addo had mocked Nigeria has been making rounds on social media. Again. The image, based on which stories were published by a number of websites and blogs, started circulating as far back as January 2018.
It received over 3800 likes, 2600 comments and 44,000 shares after it was posted on the Facebook page of View Africa24 News on January 20, 2018.
The claim was also tweeted by Femi Fani-Kayode, a lawyer and former Nigerian Minister of Aviation, on January 20, 2018 and generated 3,306 retweets, 3,568 likes and 422 comments.
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is also reported to have repeated it at an inauguration ceremony in Ekiti State in May 2018.
The image reads:
“Execute and barbecue any cattle seen on the streets of Ghana. And I command the immediate arrest of any herdsman seen parading cattle on the streets of Ghana… This is not Nigeria: Ghana President: Akufo-Ado.”
VERIFICATION OF CLAIM:
To verify this, DUBAWA reached out to the Ministry of Information and the Communication Directorate at the Presidency. The Deputy Minister for Information, Pius Hadzide, in a telephone interview, refuted the claim.
“The president has never said that anywhere and will never say that,” Hadzide said. “The President thinks very highly of the good people of Nigeria and President Buhari. He has a good relationship with him.”
It was again denied by the Director for Communication at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, when he was contacted via WhatsApp to ascertain its veracity.
“It’s fake. The President never said anything like that,” he said.
Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Alhaji Rashid Bawa, had also denounced the claim in a report by Sahara Reporters, saying the remark had never been made by the President.
CONCLUSION:
President Nana Akuffo Addo ridiculed Nigeria, according to an image which was widely circulated in 2018 and resurfaced this year.
Our checks with the Ministry of Information and the Communication Directorate at the Presidency indicate the President never made the claim.
