By Kemo Cham
The United
States has refuted a comment attributed to US President Donald Trump congratulating
one of the candidates in the just concluded elections in Sierra Leone.
In a tweet
that has gone viral on social media, the tweet purporting to be from Trump
hailed the electoral process as free and fair and then congratulated opposition
leader Julius Maada Bio for winning the election.
Sierra
Leoneans went to the polls on Saturday to vote in a run-off presidential
contest between Samura Kamara of the incumbent All People’s Congress (APC) and
Bio. Two days since the voting, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) has
been counting the results without releasing any figure. And the two rival
parties have been claiming and counter-claiming victory.
In a
statement, the US embassy said the tweet attributed to Trump was photoshoped,
noting that like everyone else it was also waiting for the official results
from NEC.
The statement
announced via the official facebook page of the embassy also announced an
initiative to the effect aimed at fighting rising trend of fake news. The
initiative, ‘YaliChecks’ seeks to increase media literacy and help people
become smart news consumers.
Throigh YaliChecks,
users of social media platforms are urged to verify information before
responsibly sharing it.
KC/APA
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