Fact check: KNUST says concert pictures were from 2019, but evidence suggest otherwise

Photos of a concert purportedly organized on the campus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) went viral last weekend.

It showed hundreds of students jamming at a musical show.

Given that there is a ban on concerts, it raised concerns about the breach of COVID-19 protocols.

The concerns come on the back of a new wave and variants of the virus which is giving health authorities sleepless nights.

Even President Akufo-Addo has been forced to ask the police to declare war on the indiscipline that had crept into the country’s fight against COVID-19.

But on Saturday, January 16, 2021, the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) defied the ban on concerts and initiated its freshmen with a musical concert that hundreds attended with only dozens wearing face masks.

Mingling freely, they jumped, screamed, and sung in chorus in defiance against all that could keep them safe as they returned to academic life nine months after the university was shut down.

But the university has denied a concert ever happened.

“In fact, per our checks, if you look at the pictures which were represented on social media with the story, these pictures might have been taken in 2019. Honestly speaking, our checks there has not been any freshers night organized on KNUST campus.

“What happened was a commercial activity where when students report, people do come around and sell their wares and also, we have MTN coming to advertise some of their products. That is what happened.

“And then, there was a church activity organised yesterday, Sunday, under very strict COVID-19 protocols. There was no musical concert on campus dubbed freshers night. In fact, there was no musical concert on campus at all. There was no musical concert,” PRO of KNUST, Dr. Norvis Bekoe said in an interview on Accra-based Starr FM which was monitored by theghanareport.com.

However, checks by theghanareport.com indicate that the said concert which was organized to welcome freshers was held at the forecourt of the Independence Hall at 7 PM on Saturday, January 16, 2021.

Time-stamped Snapchat videos confirmed the date of the event.

Theghanareport.com also spoke to a level 100 student who attended the event but asked for anonymity.

“I was there. We had fun and I even recorded some videos. The SRC organized it for the freshmen,” he told theghanareport.com.

Although Dr. Bekoe said the pictures of the event was one that happened in 2019, the pictures suggest otherwise.

In 2019, Ghana had not recorded coronavirus to warrant the use of face masks in public.

In fact, the use of face masks in Ghana was limited to theatres of hospitals.

But in the pictures circulating, some of the students dotted in the crowd were seen wearing nose masks.

School closure

On March 15, 2020, President Nana Akufo-Addo ordered the closure of all schools after the country recorded its first two cases on March 12.

The directive applied to basic, second-cycle, and tertiary institutions across the 16 regions of the country.

Mr. Akufo-Addo made the announcement on Sunday, March 15, in anticipation of rising cases of the novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19.

As of January 18, 2021, Ghana’s active cases stood at 1,776 with 346 deaths.

Tertiary schools were reopened in the first week of January 2021 while basic and second cycle institutions were reopened on January 15.