The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah says the government has braced itself for more fabricated and concocted information from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
According to him, with just a few days left for the 2020 elections, the NDC will resort to any means possible to swing votes in their favour and false information is one of their tactics.
He thus appealed to the media to be vigilant and verify every information before publishing it.
“We are expecting a number of fake news items this week. One of them is a 2016 campaign donation someone made to then-candidate Akufo-Addo. They’ve created a fake newspaper to spread false information. It’s a clear desperate attempt in this last week of a failed campaign to put out concocted stories as they did in 2008.
“This week, there will be loads of these stories but I will urge everyone to be vigilant particularly our colleague journalists. When you see something circulating, you don’t just publish it, you subject it to review,” he said on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo program.
Kojo Oppong also named some bigwigs in the NDC whom he considers to be behind the ‘fake stories’ that characterized the 2008 elections.
“We believe it is the NDC who are behind it. I have mentioned Fiifi Kwetey’s name and everyone knows him to be an NDC MP. Everyone knows Victor Smith. The Honourable Inusah Fuseini. The one which came out this week is being circulated on the NDC platforms.”
Oppong Nkrumah, however, remains confident that the hoax stories will have no impact on Nana Akufo-Addo’s chances in the 2020 elections.
He believes that the December 7 polls is a foregone conclusion for the Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP MPs.
“Just this morning they (NDC) have issued a statement that they are going to amend their manifesto… earlier when the NPP outdoored its manifesto, they had to postpone theirs by one more week to 7 September… so they mean to tell us that they have now realized the need to amend it?” he questioned.
He further added: “It shows you the desperation of the NDC especially in this last one week of the campaign. Their campaign has ‘fallen into water’, they know they’ll lose.”
