Claim: Social media users have attributed a video of a man struggling to pump water from a well with no water flowing, to Peter Amewu, the Member of Parliament for Hohoe.
Verdict: False. The video showing a man struggling to pump water from a well with no water flowing is not Peter Amewu, the Member of Parliament for Hohoe. While DUBAWA’s investigation could not confirm the man’s identity, it was established that the video was filmed in Nkolndong, a rural community in Cameroon, not Ghana. Therefore, the man in the video cannot be Peter Amewu.
Full Text
A viral video on Twitter, shared by an X user, @aristotledada, shows a man alleged to be the New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Hohoe, Peter Amewu, struggling to pump water from a well, with no water. The post, which has amassed over 300,000 views and more than 300 likes, further alleges that the MP had commissioned a borehole project in his constituency, which did not produce water at the end of the opening ceremony, suggesting poor project execution on the lawmaker’s part.
The user commented, “Hehe, NPP’s Peter Amewu commissioned a borehole project in Hohoe. However, the water failed to flow after several attempts. Time for Worlanyo TSEKPO to take over the car. #Time2Reset.”
The video has also been published by a Facebook user, boss entertainment. While users like @godfred_dante chastised the NPP party, others, including @Ghanamedo1 indicated that it originated from Nigeria.
With elections on the horizon and the potential misinformation to be used to discredit political figures, particularly in the lead-up to elections, DUBAWA decided to investigate the claim.
Verification
The first clue DUBAWA identified from the video was the French words printed on the shirt of the man pumping the water, though the words were unclear and difficult to interpret. To dig deeper, DUBAWA used the InVID video verification tool for analysis. The tool generated key frames, which were then subjected to a Google reverse image search.
This search revealed that the video was first posted on TikTok on October 23, 2023, by a user named bens.ovasho.espol. The video’s description, written in French, read: “Inauguration du puits Otele dans la Communauté de Nkolndong. Joie et allégresse,” which from Google Translate means Inauguration of the Otele well in the Nkolndong Community. Joy and jubilation.
Further investigations revealed that another part of the video, showing water flowing from the well, was also published by the same TikTok user. In this video, community members were seen celebrating, and both videos prominently displayed the name “Nkolndong Community.”
With this information, DUBAWA sought to determine where Nkolndong was located in order to trace the video’s origin. A search using Google Maps confirmed that Nkolndong is a community in Cameroon, primarily a rural area known for small villages and agricultural activity.
Based on the gathered evidence, it became clear that the video did not originate from Hohoe in Ghana’s Volta Region, and the man in the video was not Peter Amewu, the Member of Parliament for Hohoe.
Conclusion
In conclusion, DUBAWA’s search has debunked the viral claim attributing the video to Peter Amewu, the Member of Parliament for Hohoe. The video, which shows a man pumping water from a well, was not filmed in Hohoe but in Nkolndong, a rural community in Cameroon. The initial claim, which suggested that the video depicted a failed borehole project in Amewu’s constituency, is therefore false.