NDC Candidates In A Historic Meeting

Our Real Battle Is With NPP- They Declared
NPP's zero tolerance for criticism has not changed one bit in spite of loud proclamations to the contrary.

Former party General Secretary Dan Botwe, early in 2001 set the tone when he personally put pressure on the management of Ghana Television to bar some NDC vocal spokespersons from featuring on GTV breakfast show. The two affected individuals at the time were, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah and Fifi Kwetey.

This pressure from NPP officials on owners of various radio stations to stop empanelling certain NDC personalities considered to be too critical has now stretched beyond stations based in Accra into the regions.

Reports reaching The Lens indicate that the latest station to have come under this pressure is Golden Star Fm, a station based in Agona Swedru. One of the most popular discussion programs on the station is held every Saturday. It is a panel discussion dubbed Critical Issues, which regularly features either Jemima Anita DeSosoo, the NDC Deputy National Propaganda Secretary or Ibrahim Fayed, aka Sheik, a former NDC Constituency Propaganda Secretary in a lively debate with other discussants from the NPP.

The NDC representatives have over the past months continued to feature on the program in spite of various threats that are regularly issued against them by many intolerant NPP listeners. Sheik in particular, had been at the receiving end of many of those threats.

Speaking to The Lens, Sheik said that, despite the threats, he never once entertained the thought that the NPP would move beyond that to actually put pressure on the station to call of the program.

He said not long ago, he met one NPP loyalist who told him that the plan hatched by the presenter of the program, Ekow Baffour, together with Anita and Sheik, has finally come to naught. Sheik said he was at a loss as to what the gentleman was referring to. So, he did some investigation and was informed by a friend who is a top NPP man in Agona Swedru that the Station had been ordered to discontinue the program on the instructions of Major Tandoh of the National Communication Authority.

According to Sheik, his NPP source informed him that the General Manager of the Station, was privy to the orchestration. The said General Manager, according to Sheik, had on many occasions warned him to stop being critical of the NPP because various NPP callers had been calling to make threats against the station anytime Sheik was on the program.

According to Sheik, he will not be surprised if Francis Poku, the Minister for National Security is the one behind the whole orchestration since information is that the father of the owner of the station is the brother of Francis Poku.