Claim: A Facebook user posted images claiming that new roads are being constructed in Hohoe township in the Volta Region.

Verdict: Misleading. DUBAWA’s findings reveal that the pictures are old and appeared online in August 2020. 

Full Text

Infrastructure has been the core of campaign messages ahead of the December elections. Past and present governments have touted infrastructure achievements during their tenure, and roads are not left out in infrastructure-related campaign messages.

Recently, a Facebook user, Elikem Sewordor, posted images alleging that road construction is ongoing in Hohoe. Comments on the post had various other users either commending the government for its efforts in road infrastructure or doubting whether these images represented current road construction in the Hohoe township.

“You can’t wake someone who is not sleeping up. Journalists are accused of misinformation, but people like you, party executives and sources of news, keep misinforming the public. You got to Hohoe this morning and saw these things going on? Please mention the roads,” Edward Williams asked.

“What is wrong with you Elikem Sewordor why do you lie through your teeth and think it’s okay to do so? I was part of the advance team who just toured the Volta Region with JM. The whole Hohoe township is full of dust. Not even a kilometre of road has been constructed as being portrayed in these pictures. I dare you to tell us which part of Hohoe this is, you liar. Stop lying, my brother, for it’s a sin to lie,” another user, Kofi Sammy, commented.

DUBAWA decided to investigate this post as part of its campaign against misinformation and disinformation in similar forms ahead of Ghana’s elections.

Verification 

We reverse-searched the images in the post using Google tools. Our findings revealed that the same pictures first appeared online in August 2020. The photos were posted by New Patriotic Party activists in the months before Ghana’s 2020 election.

Also, according to paragraph 729 of the 2019 Budget Statement and Economic Policy by the Ministry of Finance, the Hohoe inner city roads were listed among numerous roads being negotiated and worked on.

Further,  the 2021 Budget Statement and Economic Policy confirmed that Hohoe township roads were completed in 2020 under the Urban Roads Asphaltic Overlay Programme. Paragraph 831 of the budget document indicates that the Hohoe Town roads formed part of the “648km of asphalt overlay works” completed in 2020.

Conclusion

DUBAWA findings indicate that asphalt overlays in Hohoe were done in 2020. The images in the post portraying the construction of asphaltic overlays in  Hohoe took place in 2020, thus making the claim of a 2024 overlay misleading.

Source: dubawa.org