Editors Plot Against Mills

Credible reports gathered by DAYBREAK’s news- team has revealed that some newspaper editors with a soft spot for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government have hatched a plot to pay back the Mills/Mahama government in its own coin by publishing news items that shows how much it has failed to redeem its promises to Ghanaians. The pay back is for the way they had been treated by the government they believed they risked their lives to bring to power at the time most of the current government spokespersons and spin doctors were nowhere to be found. The peeved editors have complained of the inability or apparent refusal of the Mills government to advertise in or support their newspapers. They claim some half hearted gestures from government have however been made to make them survive. These attempts, adequately insufficient, include giving them a car loan facility to which saw some of them getting toy-sized Hyundai i10 vehicles from the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) facility.

According to the sources, the grievances of this editors sterns from not only the way many of them have been neglected but also how some of those who worked to prevent President Mills from coming to power are the ones rather benefitting from the Mills/Mahama government.

The sources cited Ebenezer Ato Sam aka Baby Ansabah who has seemingly turned the offices of National security into his second home. As a result, he uses bond paper which is very expensive on the market to print his PUNCH newspaper though sales according to the DAYBREAK’s research team are abysmal.

This paper gathered that some of the pro NDC editors went mad when Baby Ansabah was included in President Mills’ trip to Trinidad and Tobago.

Sources say two and half years into the Mills/Mahama administration, President Mills has never travelled with any of the pro NDC editors.

Another journalist who has been fingered as benefitting from where he did not sow is Osbert Lartey who is the former editor of the Vanguard newspaper, a paper sources claim was aligned to the then ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) that worked assiduously to prevent the then candidate Mills from coming to power. Osbert Lartey is now the editor of the Tide newspaper which is purportedly owned by David Lamptey, Chief Executive Officer of Sidalco Ghana Limited and a close friend of President Mills.

Then also is pollster Ben Ephson, editor of the Daily Dispatch, who it is said did not contribute to sending Professor Mills to the castle. To the chagrin of the editors, he has become one of the confidants of President Mills and several of his team of appointees. Kwesi Pratt and Raymond Archer are reported to be benefitting immensely from the Mills/Mahama government but this does not seem to annoy the group of peeved editors though it is quickly pointed out that the two do not see themselves as pro NDC editors but independent ones, an excuse to jump ship when its sinking. The two own a state of the art printing press. While Pratt’s is located at the Mallam Atta Market, Archer’s is situated near the Ghana International Trade Fair Center, La.

Kwesi Pratt however claims that his printing press is nowhere near the state of the art. News making the round suggests he now uses a diplomatic passport and has got one of his sons working in the foreign intelligence unit of Ghana. Though DAYBREAK has decided not to name the editors who have planned to pay back President Mills in his own coin, it is an open secret that some of the editors are Jojo Bruce Quansah, then editor of the Ghana Palavar who out of frustration quit the paper to establish his own.

Bruce Quansah was the NDC’s Parliamentary Candidate for Mfanstiman West in the 2004 elections but did not contest in 2008 after been prevailed to let Aquinas Quansah stand. The promise to reward him for this has evaporated into thin air. Then also is Mike Dokosi editor of the Daily Post who according to sources is been punished for being a ‘Rawlings boy’ and standing up against the ‘Ato Ahowi cartel’ when they attacked former President Rawlings. Dokosi’s treatment is often the talk within NDC as it is said that he braved NPP intimidation and police arrests to help Mills into power. The deputy editor of the Daily Post, Pay Charlie Livingston has quit the paper and formed his own newspapers; the Capital Line and Ghana Daily which are seen on the newsstands once in a blue moon.

Kobby Fiagbe, editor of the Ghanaian Lens and an ally of Koku Anyidoho despite his loyalty to President Mills is still cash trapped. The absence of Vice President John Mahama at his wedding to Beauty a nurse is still a subject among the NDC editors, especially when the veep found time to attend Kweku Baako’s wedding.

Andy Kankam, editor of the insulting Informer newspaper another paper closely aligned to Koku Anyidoho is still struggling with financial issues. Benjamin Essumah, a co editor on the paper recently resigned from the paper out of frustration.

As election 2012 draws closer, all eyes would be on the pro NDC editors to see which of them would throw the sucker punch, the coup de grace that would send President Mills finally out of the castle.