Claim: The Deputy Minister for Transport, Hassan Tampuli, has stated that the woman who drove Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia during the pilot phase of the electric bus programme was a former head porter, commonly known as kayayo, who received training under a government initiative.
Verdict: FALSE. Citi Verify’s checks found that the woman, Mary Lalako Agboli, was not trained by the government. Instead, she received her training from the Network of Women Growth (NEWIG Ghana), a non-profit organization. Further checks confirmed that she has been working with Aayalolo, a bus rapid transit system, for the past six years.
BODY
Social media is abuzz following news stories and a statement by the Deputy Minister for Transport, Hassan Tampuli, claiming that the woman who drove the Vice President during the pilot phase of the electric bus programme was a former head porter (kayayo) trained by the government.
This came after Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia launched 10 electric buses in Accra on Wednesday, 27th November 2024. A key feature of the event was the graduation of a government initiative that trained Kayayei to operate these buses.
Speaking on Citi FM’s Citi Breakfast Show, on Thursday, November 28, Hassan Tampuli praised the programme, asserting that one of the kayayei who benefited from the training had driven the Vice President during the pilot phase.
His statement was broadcast live on Citi FM’s YouTube channel and can be found between 32:04 and 32:31 minutes into the second hour of the three-hour-long video.
Mr Tampuli said: “You made mention of the fact that we trained some specially selected kayayei. So, yesterday, for example, they were given their tools and certificates to commence driving. Yesterday, one of them drove us from Adenta to Kimbu. One of the ladies that we trained for driving these electric buses.”
The claim was also reported by several media outlets, including 3News, MyJoyOnline, and AdomOnline. Social media users have also published the claim as evidenced here and here. Given the widespread nature of this claim, Citi Verify has decided to investigate whether the woman in question was indeed one of the head porters (kayayei) trained under the government initiative.
VERIFICATION
First, Citi Verify conducted a thorough online search using the name Mary Lalako Agboli to uncover any relevant information. This included a Google reverse image search, which led to several news articles and videos dating back to 2017.
In 2017, we found that Mary had enrolled in and graduated from a driving school under the Network of Women Growth (NEWIG Ghana), a non-profit organization dedicated to providing vocational and entrepreneurial training for women.
The latest update about her appeared in a June 2024 article published by NEWIG Ghana, titled Mary Lalako Agboli: Breaking Stereotypes and Driving Towards Success. At the time, she was employed as a bus driver, not a head porter.
According to the article, Mary was a pupil teacher before joining NEWIG Ghana’s Professional Driving Initiative. Since completing her training, she has worked with Aayalolo, a bus rapid transit system, for nearly six years.
This is further supported by a February 2020 news report by Channel One TV (formerly Citi TV), which included footage of her driving an Aayalolo bus between the 2:50 and 4:53 timestamps. Additionally, CitiVerify uncovered an image of Mary with the CEO of NEWIG Ghana, published in September 2024 on Instagram, confirming her ongoing role as a bus driver.
Moreover, the government only announced the training of head porters on May 30, 2024. Given the timeline and the evidence above, Mary could not have been among the kayayei who underwent this training, as she was already employed as a bus driver for Aayalolo at that time. It is also necessary to indicate that Mary already had driving experience and she was not trained by the government.
