In an historic move, a court in Accra, capital of Republic of Ghana, today sentenced a social media influencer, Ms. Camilla Alhassan, to one-year imprisonment for
posting TikTok videos that President John Mahama sacrificed 32 cows to secure political power.
This is the first social media influencer in Ghana to bag a jail term on account of a false post on the president.
Alhassan, 43, bagged the jail term after pleading guilty to offensive conduct and publication of fake news.
Between June 30 and July 5, 2026, the influencer, in her videos, also alleged that the government’s move to distribute sanitary pads to victims of the June 29 flood was aimed at covering up the alleged rituals.
According to prosecutors, she made other unsubstantiated allegations concerning the President’s personal life and also attempted to link him to the deaths of former President John Evans Atta Mills and former Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur.
Speaking after the sentencing, her lawyer, Kwadwo Gyamfi Bonsu, said the court struck out a charge of electronic abuse, holding that it did not have the legal authority to determine that offence.
The court, however, convicted her on the count of offensive conduct and imposed the one-year custodial sentence.
According to the lawyer, the defence pleaded for a lighter punishment, but the court indicated that the growing prevalence of such offences required a sentence that would serve as a deterrent.
The case has since reignited debate about freedom of expression, misinformation and the responsibilities of social media creators, especially in Ghana, with many warning that online content can carry serious legal consequences when false allegations are presented as fact. (Graphic Online Yen News)
