No, Kennedy Agyapong Did Not Directly Call Bawumia To Threaten Him
Claim: Social media users have shared a viral video of flagbearer hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Kennedy Agyapong who is alleged to be on a phone call with Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia expressing his anger and further threatening to take potential action against him for an attack on his polling agent.
Verdict: False. A search revealed that Mr Agyapong was speaking on a live interview on Oman FM 107.1 FM after he had cast his ballot in the Central Region and not directly to Dr Bawumia.
Full Text
On Saturday, August 26, 2023, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) held its National Super Delegates Conference to reduce the number of aspirants seeking to contest the party’s flagbearer from ten to five in preparation for the upcoming party congress scheduled for November this year.
However, a viral video has popped up in which Mr Agyapong, the Member of Parliament for Assin North and a flagbearer aspirant, is seen in a heated phone conversation amidst threats.
In the video, he mentions the names of President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia. His agent had been forcefully removed from a voting centre, prompting Mr Agyapong to express his anger and threaten potential actions against them.
Mr Agyapong’s words in the video were, “President Akufo-Addo, I will give you a showdown in this country; I swear to God. Vice President, I will give you a showdown for chasing my agent away. I swear to God. You will hear what will happen here. I swear to God I will challenge President Akufo-Addo big time.”
Interestingly, several X (Twitter) and Facebook users have shared posts claiming that Mr Agyapong had a phone conversation with Dr Bawumia during the incident. This claim has been propagated by Twitter accounts @livenewsgh and @KyeiMeshack and a Facebook user VimBuzz.
VimBuzz claimed, “Hon Ken Agyapong Angrily calls Nana Addo and Bawumia as he threatens to deal with them.” For @livenewsgh, it claimed that “Kennedy Agyapong warned Bawumia on the phone over the mistreatment of his agent in [the] ongoing NPP super delegates conference.”
Verification
Given the alleged threats and the personalities involved, DUBAWA decided to investigate whether the vice president was threatened directly by the lawmaker and flagbearer aspirant.
DUBAWA’s quick search revealed that Mr Agyapong was on a phone interview on Oman FM and not on a live call with Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
In the Facebook live session of Oman FM, titled “Election Reference Center, NPP Presidential Elections (Super Delegates),” Mr Agyapong was participating in an interview with Oman FM after casting his vote in the Central Region. During this interview, Mr Agyapong reiterated the same comments captured in the viral video.
The full video can be found from 35:40- 37:00.
Furthermore, a campaign aide for Dr Bawumia, Akbar Yussif Rohullah Khomeini, refuted these claims as false. Mr Khomeini clarified that there had been no interaction between Mr Agyapong and Dr Bawumia throughout the day.
His clarification was in response to a Metro TV headline that erroneously stated, “Kennedy Agyapong angrily calls Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.” after the video went viral.
Conclusion
The claim that Mr Agyapong called flagbearer hopeful Dr Bawumia to threaten him after his agent was allegedly chased away from a voting centre is untrue.
Credit: ghana.dubawa.org
