Pratt fights Daily Guide: Who are my paymasters?

Kwesi Pratt Jnr, Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, has described as “repugnant” media reports that he stormed the residence of Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party in the 2012 elections on Thursday, ostensibly to “nose” around for information for his “paymasters” or perhaps “incur the displeasure of the NPP supporters for him to make a case out of it.

As carried in the Friday edition of the Daily Guide newspaper, Kwesi Pratt was reported to have joined hundreds of supporters of the New Patriotic Party from the Eastern, Brong Ahafo, Northern and Upper East regions, to the Nima residence of the party’s 2012 presidential candidate to congratulate him for exhibiting a true spirit of Statesmanship after accepting the Supreme Court verdict.

The publication also disclosed that: “the mission of Kwasi Pratt Jnr., who has constantly criticized the party for challenging the results of the 2012 general elections in court, was not immediately known, but he was seen at the periphery of the meetings which took place at Nana Akufo-Addo’s residence as he tried exchanging greetings with some party members who saw him.”

It further stated that several NPP supporters were “wondering whether Kwesi Pratt Jnr., who was clad in a brown Kaftan, was genuinely there to commiserate with Nana Akufo-Addo” or was sent there by his ‘paymasters’ “to either nose around for some information for them or just to incur the displeasure of the NPP supporters for him to make a case out of it.”

But speaking in an interview with Radio Gold, Mr. Pratt said he found the publication very ‘repugnant’.

Kwesi Pratt, who also doubles as the host of a TV3 programme “Hot Issues”, explained the rationale for his visit, revealing that he went to meet Nana Addo upon a prompt by his producers.

“Yesterday (Thursday), I went to the residence of Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo as host of the TV3 programme “Hot Issues”. My producers told me that they had arranged for an interview with Nana Addo at 11:00 yesterday. So, I went there in the company of the full crew, the cameramen, the producers and all, to do an interview with Nana Akufo-Addo on several issues and so on.”

According to him, his interview with Nana Addo was postponed because of the delegation that had paid a courtesy call on him and therefore found the report as an “insulting behavior” on the part of the newspaper’s reporter.

“This is an incredible insult that I want to be harmed. I will be paid to be harmed in order to make a point. I don’t think that it is fair for journalists to treat each other in this manner. I think this is a particularly repugnant story; extremely repugnant story,” he shockingly expressed.

He also wondered who his ‘paymasters’ are, for which the report insinuated as part of his reasons for visiting Nana Addo.

Expressing sadness over the publication, he held strongly that journalism in Ghana, since 2003, “has not gone beyond this level, this level of promoting acrimony; this level of vilification and so on…To actually put in the story that I was sent there by my paymasters, who are my paymasters?”