Liberia: Facebook Page Purporting to Be Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah Is Fake

16 August 2022
FrontPageAfrica (Monrovia)

Monrovia — Local Voices Liberia has been keeping tab on two Facebook accounts purporting to be Samuel D. Tweah - Liberia's Minister of Finance and Development Planning.

Fact Check Report By: Varney Kelvin Sirleaf | LVL Fact Checker

One is profile while the other is a page. The profile has garnered over 5,400 followers while the page has 750 likes. Both accounts have a photo of President Weah as profile photo. The Transparency for the page shows that it was created on August 8, 2022, while the profile was created on May 10, 2021.

These accounts post and share comments attributed to Minister Tweah. For example, on the same day the page was created, a post was made about the government providing an empowerment grant for medium-sized entrepreneurs and farmers through its partner. That post generated over 400 comments and was shared over 70 times in the space of 24 hours.

In a quest to verify the authenticity of both the page and the post, we contacted Mr. Aloysius Howe, Special Assistant to the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, who referred us to another Facebook post terming both the page and the information about a financial grant as fake.

In his Facebook post, Mr. Howe wrote: "That account is fake and in no way represent the Minister of Finance, his office, or the Ministry of Finance. The government of Liberia through the Ministry of Finance or the office of the Minister of Finance has partnered with no institution call GEN to provide financial grant of any means."

Conclusion

Based on research it is established that Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel D. Tweah has no Facebook account. Therefore, accounts (page or profile) making attributions to the Minister if fake.

Also, we conclude that the Facebook post claiming that the Government of Liberia is providing financial grant for medium-sized entrepreneur and farmers is misleading. According to the Special Assistant to the Minister of Finance and Development Planning the government has no such program.

Here's a link to an Explainer to help you know some simple steps you can follow to identify fake Facebook profiles or pages.

Editor's Note: This fact check report was produced by Local Voices Liberia Fact Checking Desk as part of the Liberia Media Initiative co-financed by the European Union.

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