Report Of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Jewel Howard Taylor Travel Out Of The Country To Discuss Liberia’s Runoff Election Is ‘Untrue’

By GNNLiberia Last updated Nov 17, 2023 1,562

Widely speculated news in Monrovia and other parts of the country that the former Liberian Leader, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the current Vice President of Liberia, Jewel Howard-Taylor out of the country to discuss the runoff presidential elections is false and misleading, but rather traveled to Ghana for the funeral of the former Ghanaian First Lady, the late Theresa Kufuo.

The clarification was revealed by the Facts Check team of https://localvoicesliberia.com/, noting that such information is misleading, stressing that recently Yekeh Kolubah, Representative of District #10, Montsearrdo County, on November 16 claimed during a Facebook livestream that Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor and all members of ECOWAS Election Observation Mission to Liberia have travelled to Ghana for a meeting to give incumbent President George Weah a second term in office.

The Claim

Representative Kolubah exact words were: “We have credible information that the Vice President and all the ECOWAS delegates that came here left on Asky 788 to Ghana to negotiate, to compromise the Liberian people interest. They have gone to see Obasanjo so Obasanjo can talk to Amb. Boakai and his team to see about giving former President Weah his second term”.

On November 15, the National Elections Commission began announcing preliminary results from the November 14 Presidential run-off elections. As of the time of Representative Kolubah’s livestream, NEC had announced 22.33% of the result from the run-off election.

Claim: “We have credible information that the Vice President and all the ECOWAS delegates that came here left on Asky 788 to Ghana to negotiate, to compromise the Liberian people interest. They have gone to see Obasanjo so Obasanjo can talk to Amb. Boakai and his team to see about giving former President Weah his second term”.

Rating Justification

To fact check the claim, we contacted the Press Secretary of Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor, Mr. Richmond Neufville who that “the Vice President travelled on yesterday to Ghana to attend the funeral of former First Lady Theresa Kufuor. She went to the funeral of the former First Lady of Ghana the wife of a man she considered a father and mentor John Kufuor”.

Also, we contacted ECOWAS through Madam Irene Wallace, head of Secretariat at ECOWAS Liberia office, about the claim of all ECOWAS EOM leaving Liberia.

She replied by sending us a link to live press conference that was ongoing at the time of her response, saying, “our entire team headed by our Head of Mission is live so there is just no way that we can be here and in Ghana at the same time”.

The Fact Check Conclusion said:

Based on these facts, we therefore conclude that the claim made by Representative Kolubah that Vice President Jewel Taylor and all ECOWAS Election observers left Liberia to meet former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo in Ghana to give President George Weah a second term is misleading.

The Vice President office said she had travelled to Ghana to attend the funeral of former Ghanaian First Lady Theresa Kufuor. ECOWAS also had a press conference on November 16 where all of its Election Observers were seen.

This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content.