A Blogger Jeffrey Eppirim Nyame and an IT Professional Jeremiah Kobina Egyebeng, have been charged with fabrication and publication of false news that caused fear and panic to the public.
Leading to their arrest, the blogger was accused of publishing an article on his news portal on October 27, 2022, called reportghana.net captioned, “Dollar account holders to get cedi at BOG rate for bank withdrawals effective 31st Oct?” and shared same on various WhatsApp groups and social media platforms causing fear and panic among the general public.
The Bank of Ghana upon seeing the publication alerted the police which led to the arrest of the accused persons.
During investigations, Chief Inspector Richard Amoah said it was established that Jeremiah Kobina Egyebeng initially created the news portal for Jeffrey Nyame called reportghana.com in the year 2019 which was used for the publication of similar articles but was closed down by Google for violating their community standard due to complaints received from users.
“However, Egyebeng again created a similar news portal but this time changed the domain from “dot com” to “dot net” and registered it as reportghana.net on February 11, 2022 to be able to use same for publication of articles and happenings in Ghana.
“After publishing the said false news, Nyame then shared the publication on WhatsApp group platforms including “reportghana news feed 1,” “reportghana news feed 2,” “reportghana news feed 3” with over 160 active members where he was the administrator with his personal telephone numbers 0551993013 and 0574144388 registered on the platform,” he told the court adding that the news was still circulating on social media.
Chief Insp Amoah said Nyame admitted to publishing the alleged false news but stated that he got the article from mynewsgh.com but the investigation established otherwise and confirmed Nyame as the author and publisher.
Chief Insp Amoah said Egyebeng admitted to the creation of the news portal managed and used by Nyame.
He added that further investigation uncovered the involvement of other persons involved in the publication who were currently at large and efforts underway to arrest them.
The court presided over by Mrs Rosemary Baah Torsu fixed the next hearing for December 29, in which the prosecution is expected to file all disclosures.