NPP To Boycott Asempa FM Again?

Unconfirmed reports reaching Peacefmonline.com indicate that the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is likely to boycott Asempa FM for the second time in less than a year following the fracas that occurred during the airing of one of the station’s political programmes, “Ekosii sen”.

The timely arrival of hordes of personnel from the Ghana Police Service, with their crowd control equipment in tow on Wednesday, averted what could have easily been a nasty incident when hundreds of irate supporters of the opposition NPP, unhappy with how the host of the show, Bobie Ansah was 'heckling' and trying to emasculate Hopeson Adoye, an NPP activist who was a panelist on the programme, laid siege at the premises of the Accra-based commercial radio station.

Hopeson Adoye, confirmed to Kwami Sefa Kayi in an interview on Peace FM’s morning show that indeed an argument ensued between himself and the host of the show when it became obvious that he (Bobie) had had enough of him (Adoye). According to him, Bobie Ansah told him to the face that “if you cannot do sensible debate then walk out,” but he (Adoye) stood his grounds and refused to budge.

Recounting the incident, Adoye said as tempers flared, the host promptly cut off his (Adoye’s) microphone, abruptly halted the show to take a commercial break and allegedly requested that the security personnel kick out the NPP activist and also threatened him with a pistol.

Following the incident, peacefmonline sources say the NPP is deliberating whether or not to send representatives to the show again since the party wants to avoid future occurrences.

It would be recalled that in October last year, Bobie had a run-in with the NPP when the Communications Directorate of the party took a decision not to participate in any radio programme aired on the station. The decision of the party then, according to sources at the party’s headquarters, was borne out of the "deliberate policy of the programme, to continually focus its programming agenda on attacking the Presidential Candidate of the NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and the party as a whole.”

According to the NPP, the “sustained campaign of attacking Nana Addo has been ongoing for the last couple of years and thus prompted the party to register its displeasure, firstly through protests to Multimedia group and now the boycott of Asempa FM".

Admittedly, the NPP said, though it was "not in a position to determine for any media house how they run their programmes, they are at liberty to determine whether or not to continue promoting or participating on a program that they are convinced and, indeed, many well-minded listeners are equally convinced that is designed to unfairly attack the NPP and its leaders, especially their flagbearer."

For now, it remains to be seen what the outcome of the meeting will be.