Video of Felix Ofosu Kwakye allegedly announcing Mahama’s ill health doctored

A video making rounds on social media suggests that former Deputy Information Minister, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, has announced that the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, is unwell. 

The video emerged following comments made by Kwesi Ahwoi, a leading member of the NDC, that the party’s Vice Presidential Candidate Prof Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang should be prepared to assume leadership in the event of anything happening to Mahama while in office.

Through a reverse image search, Fact-Check Ghana found that the video was first posted at 8 am on March 25, 2023, on Tiktok account @CastinBillz   with the Caption ‘NDC Felix Kwakye on John Mahama’s Health’. Before publishing this report, the video had garnered 1,258 views, 34 likes and 1 favourite.

 On the same day, an X account with username @CastinBillz, also posted it at 10:43 am of March 25th, 2024. The video had 13.6k views, 21 reposts and 41 likes. 

The usernames of the accounts that first shared the video on TikTok and X are the same, suggesting that it was the same person spreading the video across the platforms.

The same video was again posted at 11:12 am of March 25th, 2024, on another  X account with the username @Engr_ASAMOAH. Attached to the video was an alleged medical report of John Mahama by a purported Clinical Consultant, Dr Mensah. The report which had a tall list of diseases alleged that John Mahama had been hospitalised on January 29, 2024, at the cancer unit of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. The post had 87.1k views, 184 likes and 54 reposts.

DID YOU KNOW‼️

A leaked information from Korle Bu Teaching Hospital to the press on John Dramani Mahama

On the 29th January, 2024 the former President his Excellency John Dramani Mahama was admitted to Korle Bu Teaching Hospital at the Cancer unit with the following persistent… pic.twitter.com/g8WoT8DcVL

— Engr. ASAMOAH ???????? (@Engr_ASAMOAH) March 25, 2024

 However, investigations by Fact-check Ghana reveal that the video is old and has been doctored. 

Explanation

A critical review of the video reveals that the sound between 0:02 and 0:03 seconds has been muted, therefore not allowing any listener to hear the particular flagbearer Felix Ofosu Kwakye was referring to.

 Looking at the video, we took notice of some key signs such as the 3News logo, indicating that the video was shot in the studios of TV3. Checks on the Accra-based TV station’s social media pages revealed that it was an old video published in September 2016, during the time this current government was in opposition. 

The full video shows that Felix Ofosu Kwakye was not referring to John Mahama. Rather he was speaking to a news publication that alleged that President Akufo-Addo, then a leading opposition leader, had cancer. Thus, Felix Ofosu Kwakye never made comments about the health of Former President John Dramani Mahama.

Investigation into Mahama’s alleged admission to the Korle Bu cancer unit

On January 30, 2024, John Mahama was on his #BuildingGhanaTour. He posted a live video on his X account @JD Mahama about his interaction with farmers and fishmongers at the market square at Frankadua, a village in Asuogyaman Constituency in the Eastern Region of Ghana. This calls into question the veracity of claims that the ex-president was on admission a day before (January 29) at the cancer unit of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra. 

Also, our checks from Korle Bu Teaching Hospital indicate that there is no Clinical Consultant by the name Dr Mensah. 

From the above, it is evident that the viral video is old and has been doctored to make it appear that Felix Ofosu Kwakye was raising concerns about the ill health of John Mahama.