Irrepressible radio presenter, Gilbert Abeiku Aggrey, better known in showbiz circles as Abeiku Santana, has debunked suggestions that he was lured from Adom FM with a lot of goodies by the Despite Group for him to join the new Okay FM.

Since it was learnt that Santana had left Adom FM where he was a star presenter, speculations have been rife that he was offered a five-digit monthly salary to relocate. Others have mentioned perks such as a brand-new SUV and even a furnished gift house.

In his first interview last Monday, Santana revealed that he was not poached or offered anything to work for Okay FM. According to him, he literally walked to the offices of Peace FM himself to look for work.

“I had been very close to the guys at the Despite Group long before I joined Adom FM and I wish to state emphatically that I wasn’t poached. I joined Okay FM myself. I walked to the General Manager Fadda Dickson and told him that I needed a job,” he disclosed.

Santana explained that he had a divine calling that he was going to move from Adom FM to another station but, he had no idea what station it was going to be.

“I was comfortable at Adom FM but when the call came from God that I had to move, I had to obey. I didn’t believe it myself and I know that until I first spoke for the first time on Okay FM, Fadda Dickson and CEO Osei Kwame Despite didn’t believe I was truly going to work with the Despite Group, so I think it’s from God”.

Asked how he left Adom FM, Santana who resigned from his former employers only days before joining Okay FM said “well ordinarily, it wouldn’t have been easy for me to leave Adom FM and my employer was not going to let me go so readily. So between me and my personal manager, Fennec Okyere, the plan was that I was going to tender in my resignation letter and travel out of town”.

He said he signed his resignation letter at the airport and gave it to his manager to deliver to his employers and by the time they received the letter he was on his way to China. When he was asked why he decided to resign from Adom FM after working with station for over eight years, Abeiku said he wanted to move on and make a change.

“What I know is that change is constant, if you don’t change, the change of time will change you; change is very significant and brings growth and development. I wanted to move on and it happened in God’s own time”.

He insisted that he did not leave Adom FM because of money. “It is not because of money, if it was money, Multimedia was ready to give me any amount I wanted even perhaps much more than I am taking now and trust me I was paid very well at Adom FM. So it was just a calling”.

Abeiku Santana who has been on Okay FM for only a few weeks said he was over whelmed by the response he has been receiving from listeners and the fast rate at which the Okay FM fever is catching listeners. He said that for now he has just achieved just about two percent of his target for Okay FM. “The real work is yet to begin”, he said.

In answer to a question as to how differently he was going to perform on Okay FM, Santana said, “The Lord who led and directed me at Adom FM to soar from virtually nowhere to the top, will again direct me as to what to do. I don’t control anything I do on radio; I leave everything in the hands of God and take one day at a time”.

Abeiku Santana was Head of Music Programmes at Adom until he quit. He cut his teeth in broadcasting with Vibe FM in 1997 after friends and colleagues encouraged him to go into radio because he had the flair and style for emceeing.

Santana also worked with Radio Z FM now Eastern FM in Koforidua from 1997 to 1999. He then moved to Kumasi, Radio Mercury form 1999-2001, as the Assistant Programmes Manager. He later joined the Sky Group of companies - owner of Ash FM in Kumasi, as the late afternoon show host and also a Sales and Marketing Supervisor.

After returning from Europe in 2002, Santana joined Multimedia Group Company Limited, owners of Adom FM, where he was the host of Ofiekwanso, a drive-time programme from 2pm to 6pm weekdays.