Video shows Ghana’s roads minister – not the president – ordering the arrest of a foreign developer

This article is more than one year old.
Published on February 27, 2020 at 17:05
3 min read
By Segun OLAKOYENIKAN, AFP Nigeria

A video of a man angrily shouting at foreigners has been viewed more than a million times in multiple Facebook posts alongside a claim that it shows Ghana’s president getting angry at a contractor. But the video actually shows the country’s roads minister ordering the arrest of foreign developers over construction work done near state roads.

The video was published here on Facebook on December 19, 2019. It has been viewed more than a million times, according to data provided by the social network.

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, taken on February 19, 2020

The four-and-a-half-minute footage shows a man surrounded by uniformed men, pointing and yelling at a foreigner holding a hard hat for extending the perimeter of a construction site to the state road.

“The owner of this property must be arrested immediately. The contractor, all those working here, must be arrested immediately. You have destroyed the public road. In which country can this be allowed? In your own country, can anybody do this? It is madness!”, the man shouts.

He then tells the uniformed men to arrest the foreigner, who is handcuffed, and orders all remaining builders to halt their work.

The post’s caption reads: “We need this man in naija, Ghana President got mad wt the contractor.!!! (sic).”

The video clip has also been shared here and here on Facebook, as well as here and here on Twitter alongside a similar claim.

Minister, not president

But while the clip was indeed shot in Ghana, it doesn’t show President Nana Akudo-Addo but the country’s roads and highways minister Kwesi Amoako Atta.

His outburst came months after about 1.56 billion Ghanaian Cedi ($290 million) worth of funding was approved for the reconstruction, rehabilitation, and upgrading of 14 road networks across different regions in Ghana.

Multiple Google searches for keywords in the Facebook post led us to this version of the footage with higher quality.

Reports published on December 18, 2019 on leading Ghanaian news websites, including JoyOnline and TheGhanaReport, say Atta ordered the arrest of some contractors over their failure to secure a building permit and extending the construction of the barricade of a 22-storey building which led to the destruction of a public road in Accra.

The reports, along with building structures and paintings seen in the footage, provide clues to the location of the construction site.

Using Google Street View, AFP confirmed that the video was shot at Senchi Street, Accra.

Screenshots of the video (up) and Google Street View (down), taken on February 19, 2020

Background buildings, natural features and other visual clues are seen in both the video and on Google Street View, including wooden electric poles, balcony railing, and palm trees.

Screenshots of the video (up) and Google Street View (down), taken on February 19, 2020

In addition, comparing images of the president and roads minister, the man in the video is identifiable as the latter.

Image of President Akudo-Addo and a screenshot of the viral video, taken on February 19, 2020

Image of Kwasi Amoako Atta and a screenshot of the video, taken on February 19, 2020

AFP has contacted Atta as well as the Ghana Highway Authority for comment but has not yet heard back.

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