Claim: President Boakai spent over $500,000 to renovate his home when he became president.
Verdict: Unproven, there is no evidence to show that Joseph N. Boakai used more than US$500,000 for the renovation of his home when he took over as president of Liberia.
Full Text: Isaac Doe, former Deputy Minister for Youth Development at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, claimed on Monday, July 8, 2024, that Joseph Boakai used over $500,000 to upgrade his home when he took over the leadership of the country.
Doe made the statement on Spoon Talk in response to Al Hussein Fadiga, who said former president George M. Weah, during his first year in office, built a lot of homes and upgraded his properties.
The claim is here in 3:39:20 seconds of Monday’s edition of the program.
Doe is a strong supporter of the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) and now serves as a panelist on Spoon Talk. He worked in the CDC-led government as Deputy Minister for Youth Development at the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The claim: “Brother Fadiga said President Boakai is living in his house as it was, But Fadiga, I thought you are in Liberia? Please go to President Boakai’s house and take the picture and send it here. Look, your stop this politics. Campaign cannot continue, campaign finished months ago almost a year now, have you seen President Boakai house now? Go there and see it. President Boakai’s house is not the way it used to be. President has spend more than 500,000 on his house upgrade with a Labanese’s company to redesign and put furnitures…”
In response to Doe, Stanton Witherspoon, Spoon Network’s former CEO said: “I reached out to those builders and engineers…President Joseph N. Boakai, he was here in the United States when we showed him the picture, I did and Fahngon. I say, look at this information coming fourth, at the time he was president-elect, that you are rehabbing your house for over five hundred thousand United States Dollars and he said listen, nephew, I will take the money and build new house but I will not take that money to fix the current place I am living and we laughed. So, the information that the president used over five hundred thousand to fix his house, I can 100% say this to the Liberian people, that is not true. That is a fake propaganda news from CDC
Verification: To verify this claim, our researcher sent a WhatsApp message to Doe requesting a source for his claim on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, but he has not responded to our inquiry.
We also contacted Kula Fofana, the President’s Press Secretary, to respond to Doe’s claim.
Kula said “I had gathered the information you requested. Thanks for reaching out. Kindly be informed that President Boakai has not used any such amount to renovate his home. Such information is misleading.”
Our researcher checked both Facebook and Google using key words like “President Boakai renovates his home,” but we could not find any evidence that the Liberian leader used to rehab his home after being elected.
Conclusion: After our research, there is no evidence to prove that Boakai used US$500,000 to renovate his home. Therefore, the claim made by Doe is unproven.
