Claim: A user on X, Political Warden (@khkayy27), has posted a video with the claim that NPP’s Patrick Yaw Boamah encouraged the people of Fadama to vote for the NDC’s John Mahama and back him (Patrick Boamah) personally.
Verdict: False. Patrick Boamah did not encourage the people of Fadama to vote for the NDC presidential candidate and himself. DUBAWA found out that the video’s original sound had been tampered with.
Full Text
A user on X, Political Warden, posted a video of the Member of Parliament for the Okaikwei Central Constituency, Patrick Yaw Boamah, with the caption, “So some NPP MPs are preaching skirt and blouse. I just saw this video somewhere.”
The 50-second video posted on November 28 has gotten over 19,500 views. The audio in the video indicated that Mr Boamah encouraged people to vote for the opposition’s flag bearer alongside himself (skirt and blouse).
The exact words in the video are, “While campaigning in Fadama, where his support is less Robust, Boamah took a unique approach. He encouraged residents to vote for their preferred candidate, John Mahama, while also asking them to back him personally, not his party’s flag bearer, Dr Bawumia, who is Muslim. When residents brought up critical issues like unemployment and water shortage, he shifted the conversation, urging them to vote for whoever they like…”
Most comments on the post were sceptical about the video’s originality. DUBAWA has decided to conduct a fact check to confirm its veracity.
Verification
The first suggestion that the video may have been fabricated or manipulated was the voice-over. The voice sounded like an AI-generated voice, and some phrases, such as “Patrick Boamah” and “Dr. Bawumia,” were not pronounced correctly.
DUBAWA picked clues like “Fadama” and scenes of Mr Boamah shaking hands with people who looked like traditional leaders to conduct a thorough Google search. Through the search, DUBAWA found the original video and manipulated one on the Active TV gh page on Facebook.
The video, 2 minutes and 6 seconds long, was originally posted on Aug. 4, 2024, by the page on Facebook and was taken at the New Fadama at 60 celebrations earlier this year.
After watching the video, DUBAWA realised Mr Boamah had not encouraged people to vote for the NDC’s John Mahama. Rather, the interviewer from Active TV asked Mr Boamah what he had to say about New Fadama being 60 years old. In response, he congratulated the community’s chiefs and proposed an endowment fund to support future projects.
Additionally, the interviewer asked what Boamah had to tell the youth of the Zongo community since it is an election year, and he emphasised that not only the Zongo youth but all youth, including Christians, should comport themselves to promote peaceful elections.
Thus, parts of this video were cut and manipulated with an AI voiceover to misinform the public.
Conclusion
The claim that Patrick Yaw Boamah has encouraged “skirt and blouse” in the upcoming elections is false.