Claim: A picture of the IEC headquarters with the caption “Alert Shooting incident reported at the IEC headquarters”, has been shared by One Mr. Lamin Tamba on his Facebook page, claiming that “Barrow’s Government is turning into a gang land”
Fact-Check: The Centre has launched a fact check on the reported incident to verify its validity. First we contacted the communications director of IEC, they confirmed to us that there were no gunshots as reported on social media. According to the director, a few days ago, some burglars attempted to break into the election house during the night and they got pursued by the PIU officials but they were no guns shot. A similar statement was whispered by the vice Chairperson when reached.
Our researchers went further to engage nearby residents of Kanifing to confirm if there were any gunshots heard or witnessed from the IEC premises, we spoke to a few people, among them is a lady who told us “I did not hear any gunshots in my area and I did not hear any of our neighbors talking about such incident”. According to her, there is no way a gunshot incident happening at the election house without them knowing. Two other individuals confirm that they have not heard any gunshots around.
Conclusion
After our research, we have found out that the claim of gunshots at the IEC headquarters is false and could not be confirmed by anyone. Both the IEC officials and residents of Kanifing East has denied hearing gunshots.
The police through their Public Relations Officer has also confirmed that no shooting had taken place.
Therefore the claim is rated False
