How we hid 'scared' Owusu-Bempah from NIB operatives in 2016 - UTV presenter recounts

Agya Kwabena, a host on UTV's daily talk show programme, Adekye Nsroma, has joined the band of Despite Media employees condemning an attack on the station by hooligans affiliated with the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

In a response on his programme on October 12, 2023; he singled out an NPP member in the person of Ernest Owusu-Bempah for special critique.

Owusu-Bempah is on record as calling UTV's United Showbiz programme "useless" amid the back and forth about how the programme had increasingly turned political and allowed panellists to openly insult the government and its officials.

Agya Kwabena said it was especially worrying that Owusu-Bempah would be the person launching such attacks on the station and justifying the hooligan action of October 7.

He recounted an instance in 2016 when it took the staff of UTV to shield Owusu-Bempah from operatives of the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB).

"Remember, it was on this same station when he was being sought after by NIB operatives for some comments he had made, it took our intervention to hide him in one of our offices for about three hours, it was during an evening programme.

"He left his car here for five days, we shielded him till very late and worked for him to sneak out of the building. Out of fear, he even took away a set of keys belonging to us," the presenter recounted to two other colleagues.

When one other suggested that maybe he should have been handed over and disciplined at the time, the host clarified:

"He was our guest and we couldn’t allow him to be picked up. Today, you who we protected decides to insult us this way, it is not a problem but this is where we all are, let’s see how this goes," he lamented.

The United Showbiz programme had been the subject of controversy after the NPP wrote to UTV to reform the programme.

A copy of their letter was ripped on live TV by panellist A Plus, in part triggering the invasion which led to the arrest of 16 people who have since been bailed.

Remember the time we shielded you from the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) when they arrived at our premises to arrest you? - Agya Kwabena to Ernest Owusu Bempah#UTVGhana pic.twitter.com/oivqtO3zF3

— UTV Ghana (@utvghana) October 12, 2023