On December 1, 2024, Sammy Gyamfi, NDC’s Communication Director, posted a video of Assin Central MP Kennedy Agyapong to his over 268,000 followers on X.
The caption of the video reads, “REJECT NPP’S CASH FOR VOTES AND VOTE FOR A MAN WHO CAN CREATE JOBS – KENNEDY AGYAPONG TO VOTERS [SIC]”
In the 01:20-second video Sammy Gyamfi posted, which garnered over 160,000 views as of Dec. 2, 2024, the NPP legislator was talking to an interviewer and proudly asking electorates to oppose vote buying.
Speaking in the video, Kennedy Agyapong said this in the Akan language:
“Now they are using money to buy your conscience. They mean that if they keep you hungry for eight years, and they later come to you with a little incentive, they can buy your conscience. This time, we should show them that [Ken then gave a proverb in Akan] ‘if we didn’t hear the rain pour in the night, the soaked earth in the morning easily tells us it actually poured’.
“If you [Bawumia] could have done anything, you had enough time to do it. After 8 years, our kids are looking for jobs, and they are not getting them; police, immigration, fire service, prisons, teaching, nursing, and local government positions are now for sale. As a delegate, you pay GHC 10,000… one of the Bolga, Upper East delegates told me that.
“One of the regional executives told me that she paid GHC 10,000 for her daughter to get enrolled into the police, but she didn’t get the slot after paying… so they should vote for someone who will bring jobs, and if there are jobs, there is no need for anyone to pay for it.” Kennedy Agyapong slammed delegates who were rooting for Dr Bawumia and other aspirants who wanted to be flagbearers of the NPP last year.
But the caption of Sammy Gyamfi’s post on X misled some followers into believing Kennedy Agyapong was talking about electorates in general ahead of the Dec. 7 elections. In contrast, he was only referring to delegates participating in the NPP internal elections when he was standing for the position of flagbearer last year.
Others also believed he was endorsing NDC’s presidential candidate, John Mahama, against Dr Mahamudu Bawumia of the NPP.
Reacting to the post, Kay, a user on X with the handle @NyhiraPapa, queried ex-President Mahama’s tenure as president.
“What jobs did Mahama create? Every liar, like you, licks their mouth when talking. That’s all that you did yesterday at UTV showbiz. You lie too much, and you’re so confident in lying that it will take you another 20 years in opposition,” he wrote at 10:41 AM on Dec 1, 2024.
Moreover, another X user, MarkPopo, with the handle @MarkPopo136728, said:
“We will refuse to be swayed by these corrupt big men who only come to us when they need our votes with a small token. We will vote against the NPP massively in the upcoming elections. The time for change is now,” he wrote at 5:03 PM on Dec 1, 2024.
Nonetheless, the video Sammy Gyamfi shared can also be found on Facebook, Instagram, and other accounts on platforms such as X.
With the tendency to confuse and mislead people ahead of the Dec. 7 elections, DUBAWA decided to investigate further.
Verification
In investigating this video, DUBAWA found the original video of Kennedy Agyapong speaking against the New Patriotic Party (NPP) gestures two days prior to the NPP’s flagbearers’ election, which took place on November 4, 2023.
The part Sammy Gyamfi posted can be seen at the 41-minute-38-seconds of the full video.
The interview was also streamed live on Nov 2, 2023, on the channel by the owner of the account, a Ghanaian journalist, Dan Kwaku Yeboah, who has since reached over 28,808 views on the popular video platform YouTube.
Again, fact cards pop up periodically in the original video posted on his YouTube channel, in which he asks NPP delegates to vote for him on November 3, 2023. This shows that it’s an old video taken to push a different narrative as the elections inch closer.
Additionally, to verify the fact that Kennedy Agyapong wasn’t talking to Ghanaians as a whole, and, he was speaking to delegates in the NPP, he commented a few seconds before the initial viral video saying,
“If he [Bawumia] did the work well, why would he want to buy your conscience…? Because they have disappointed you, the delegates…” before he proceeded with the statement that is being disseminated that he is asking Ghanaians to vote out the NPP in 2024. This can be found in the 41-minute-23-second part of the original video that was streamed live.
Conclusion
The video of Kennedy Agyapong shared by Sammy Gyamfi, suggesting the Assin Central MP was urging Ghanaians to reject the NPP in the upcoming December 7 elections, is misleading. The original video, recorded during the NPP flagbearers’ race in November 2023, shows Kennedy Agyapong addressing delegates and criticising internal vote-buying.
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