Claim: A viral press statement claims that the former mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, is calling for the boycott of the “rigged” election.
FINDING
DUBAWA contacted Ms Aki-Sawyerr, who denied the statement saying she would organise a Facebook live to debunk the claim.
We visited the Twitter account of the former Mayor (@yakisawyerr) and found no statement. Her last post was a video shared four hours ago, urging the public to go and cast their vote.
A keyword search also revealed no news report on the statement.
We also subjected the press release to ‘Forensically’, a tool for investigating documents and found some cloning effect on the document suggesting it was manipulated.
VERDICT: FALSE
AUTHOR: Lois Ugbede and Jaward Nyallay
