Watch as Kofi Bentil is made to backtrack on live TV for claiming govt photos from AirMed were fake

Pictures and video footage shared by Felix Kwakye Ofosu, the Minister of State in charge of Government Communications, in which he explained that the AirMed flights arrived in the country for maintenance, thereby dismissing allegations of drug trafficking as alleged by Fordjour, have been labeled as fake by Kofi Bentil, the Vice President of IMANI Africa.

Speaking on Newsfile on JoyNews on Saturday, April 12, 2025, Kofi Bentil, a panel member, controversially claimed that the pictures posted by the minister of state were fake, while discussing the ongoing cocaine plane saga.

According to Bentil, the facts on the ground seem to contradict the information provided by the government, raising concerns about the seriousness of the issue.

“Some of the pictures that were shown were fake pictures and some of the facts on the ground do not bear us the information that the government spokesperson came to tell us. That’s a serious matter,” Bentil claimed.

However, his bold claims that the government posted fake pictures of the AirMed flights were challenged by the program’s host, who sought to verify the accuracy of Bentil’s accusations.

When asked how he arrived at the conclusion that the pictures were fake and whether he had personally verified them, Bentil responded affirmatively, stating that he had conducted a Google search which revealed the original source of the images.

When pressed to provide the source or basis for his claim, Bentil quickly backtracked, clarifying that it was someone else who had checked the origin of the images on Google and concluded that they were fake.

But the host of the program, made the point that Bentil cannot be speaking authoritatively on such things without proper evidence, leading to the IMANI Africa top executive eating humble pie and changing the trajectory of his claims.

Read excerpts of the conversation below:

Bentil: Some of the pictures that were shown were fake pictures and some of the facts on the ground do not bear us the information that the government spokesperson came to tell us. That’s a serious matter.

Host (Samson Lardi): Some of the pictures were fake?

Bentil: Yes, some of the pictures were fake.

Host: How did you confirm that?

Bentil: You check it on Google and it shows you the source…

Host: You have checked?

Bentil: Yes.

Host: So, can you show us how one of those pictures is fake because you have done that? Because it’s a serious claim you are making.

Bentil: Some of the pictures that were put out, somebody checked on Google and saw that it’s a picture of that aeroplane tyre or something and saw that that picture had been pulled from somewhere.

Host: You say that some of the pictures shown by the government representing the aeroplane and the things that came with it are fake. I think you cannot say that and not show us your source or your basis for saying that.

Bentil: Now, I said for the government spokesperson to be the one speaking over an investigation that the state institution has done and it’s not completed, that is where all these things has its problems. Let the state institution speak. Then I said some of the pictures that the government spokesperson supposedly put out, somebody checked on Google and came and said they saw that picture in a stock somewhere else. All right? So, I’m saying when you create these kinds of situations, don’t let the state institutions do those things.

Host: You see, now you’re explaining that somebody else checked one or some of the pictures and confirmed that it is fake. You yourself have not confirmed that for yourself.

Bentil: No, I haven’t.