Claim: Grand Bassa County Superintendent, Janjay Baikpeh is down with a stroke.
Sources: Facebook user and Martin K.N Kollie Facebook Pages Respectively.
Verdict: True, but…
Full Text: Early May, news broke of the ill health of Grand Bassa County Superintendent, Janjay Baikpeh.
Journalist Amos P. Korzawu was among the first people who posted about the Superintendent but was not definite as to what kind of sickness Baikpeh was down with.
He wrote, “Let’s pray for Grand Bassa Superintendent Janjay Baikpeh, May God recover him from this illness. Amen…”
As for Martin K.N Kollie, a social activist and another Facebook user who posted in a public group, they were definite as to what happened to the Superintendent.
Kollie on May 6, 2023, posted on his Facebook page, “Confirmed and said: “The superintendent of Grand Bassa County, Janjay Baikpeh is down with a stroke.”
On the same day, another Facebook user posted in a public group saying, “Sad Breaking News: the superintendent of Bassa, Janjay Baikpeh, is down with a stroke. Please remember him in prayer.”
Kollie’s post has generated 416 and 384 reactions while the Facebook user on The Costal Show has thus far received 276 comments and 173 reactions.
Verification: To verify the above claims of the Superintendent being down with a stroke, TSM-Liberia called Journalists Onesimus Garway of Grand Bassa County.
Garway confirmed that the information about the Superintendent being sick was accurate but was unsure of the stroke.
According to Garway, the Superintendent’s family told journalists in Grand Bassa that Sup. Janjay Baikpeh was indeed sick but they dismissed the claim of him coming down with a stroke.
Journalist Garway stated that the Superintendent was last seen in public during the just-ended cabinet retreat in Grand Bassa County and was in good health from his physical appearance that day.
We also visited the Facebook page of the superintendent with the hope of seeing recent information from him about the ongoing claim of him being down with a stroke, but nothing was seen posted by him denying or confirming his ill health.
The only recent post of the Superintendent only said, “God is great!”
Conclusion: Following our verification, TSM can safely say that the superintendent is indeed faced with some health issues. We were unable to independently verify that he had come down with a stroke.
This story was produced with the Center for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) support.
