FACTCHECK: Koku Anyidoho’s ‘fake’ Aduomi support letterhead vs. the NDC’s

Claim:

NDC issued a letter supporting independent aspirant in Ejisu:

Koku Anyidoho, a former Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), circulated correspondence on a letterhead purporting to be from the party’s National Secretariat.

The two-page letter suggested that the NDC financially supported an independent candidate in the April 30 by-election in Ejisu.

The first page was an instruction from General Secretary Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, reportedly asking the Ashanti Regional branch to support independent candidate Kwabena Owusu Aduomi.

However, the NDC did not field a candidate in the election.

Despite a dismissal by the NDC, labelling the letter as fake, Anyidoho has insisted that the denial was coming late and thereby doubling down on his position that the party was engaged in belated lazy professionalism.

“When you wait for the election to be over before attempting some lame PR to distance yourself from the letter without any cogent proof, what shows that your response is not fake? The lazy unprofessionalism at the Party HQ, where I have worked before, is becoming unbearable,” he said in a follow-up critique.

GhanaWeb’s FACTCHECK desk scrutinized the ‘fake’ letter and found the following inconsistencies compared to the known NDC letterhead:

a. The party’s reference number on Anyidoho’s letter, ‘NDC/HQ/26/VOL.2/19,’ had already been used in respect of a statement officially released by Kwetey on March 27.

b. There is a corresponding ‘Your Ref:’ slot on Anyidoho’s letter, which the known NDC letterheads do not have.

c. The NDC letterheads used by Kwetey in formal communications do not have postal, telephone, and email details at all, whereas Anyidoho’s version has a contact section to the right side of the references.

d. NDC letterheads, as released by the party, have dates under the ‘Our reference’ section. The date format is as follows: Day, Date, Month, Year. Anyidoho’s version doesn’t have the day and is on the right instead of the left side.

e. In normal party correspondence, the General Secretary signs off as ‘Fifi Fiavi Kwetey’ followed by ‘General Secretary’, then ‘National Democratic Congress (NDC),’ in that order. The third detail is missing in Anyidoho’s letter.

f. In Anyidoho’s letter, the text indicating persons in ‘cc:’ is irregular and squeezed to the bottom. The text appears smaller than the font used throughout the letter.

See a copy of Anyidoho’s letterhead as against the NDC’s

‘It is fake’ – Fifi Kwetey on pro-Aduomi letter shared by Anyidoho, NPP activists

“It is fake. We saw it yesterday (April 29) and I can tell you nothing like that has happened,” Kwetey said in an interview when contacted by GhanaFact.

Verdict: The letter is fake!

NPP retains Ejisu as NDC stays away:

The by-election was triggered by the death of the incumbent MP, John Kumah, in March 2024.

At the end of the vote, the NPP candidate, Kwabena Boateng prevailed with 55.8% of total votes cast and has since been declared MP-elect.

Final Results from 204 out of 204 Polling Stations;

Esther Osei (CPP) – 0.2 percent (89 votes)

Kwabena Boateng (NPP ) – 55.8 percent (27,772 votes)

Beatrice Boakye (LPG) – 0.3 percent (149 votes)

Kwabena Owusu Aduomi (IND) – 43.3 percent (21,534 votes)

Joseph Agyeman Fredua (IND) – 0.4 percent (222 votes)

Joseph Attakora (IND) – 0.0 percent (23 votes)

Voter turnout – 49.1 percent