THEY CAME TO ARREST DR. GADZEKPO, NOT TO CLOSE DOWN JOY FM - Reveals Paul Adom-Otchere

SOURCE: NEW CRUSADING GUIDE

In the wake of on-going controversies over claims by British diplomat, Craig Murray that some armed security men from the Castle stormed the offices of JOY FM with an intention of closing down the station, in the heat of election 2000, a former employee of the station, Paul Adom Otchere who witnessed the incident in question has given a different account of what transpired on that day.

Mr. Murray recounted in his book, “The Catholic Orangemen of Togo and Other Conflicts I Have known” that “on the evening before the poll, I was taking Roger Gale and Nigel Jones to visit Joy FM, possibly Ghana’s most influential radio station, run by my good friend, Sam Attah Mensah. We were sitting in the back office of the station when an armed possess of Rawlings’ security men from the Castle came in the front door and announced that they had come to close down the radio station on the President’s instructions”

But Mr. Adom Otchere who to a certain extent corroborated the diplomat’s story, recalled that “It was after the programme and normally we were still chit-chatting at the reception area that is the panelists, myself and the producer of the show and the programmes manager of the station when they arrived, I don’t remember that they were armed but they were quite violent in their appearance and they said that they had instructions to arrest Dr. Gadzekpo for criticizing the President and we were all worried about their warrant and they appeared very serious so an argument ensued, we were challenging their authority”.

According to him, the security men mentioned in the course of the heated argument that the station’s license was issued by government and could therefore be withdrawn, adding “THEY ADMITTED THAT THEIR MISSION WAS TO ARREST DR. GADZEKPO. I DON’T REMEMBER THEM SAYING THAT THEIR MISSION WAS TO CLOSE DOWN THE RADIO STATION”

Mr. Adom Otchere told JOY News that Mr Murray who was the Deputy British High Commissioner at the time “HAPPENED TO BE AROUND SO HE WAS QUITE ENRAGED. ENRAGED HE WAS WITH TWO OTHER ELECTION OBSERVERS AND THEY ALSO JOINED THE ARGUMENT, QUESTIONING THEIR CAPACITY TO ARRIVE AT A RADIO STATION WITHOUT A WARRANT, INDICATING THAT THEY HAVE INSTRUCTIONS TO ARREST HER.

He went on to narrate that the security men left premises of the station after they (JOY) pretended to have put a call through to the National Security Minister for his intervention.

Mr. Murray also recounted in his book that “I appeared from the office and said: Good evening. I am Craig Murray, Deputy British High Commissioner, and these gentlemen are Mr. Roger Gale MP and Mr. Nigel Williams MP, members of the British Parliament who are here on behalf of the Inter Parliamentary Union”’.

He continued that “Roger Gale then added: ‘Obviously there has been some mistake. I thought I heard you say that you were closing down the station, but we are here to visit our fellow democracy, Ghana, and democracies don’t close down radio stations. It must be a misunderstanding. Perhaps you can go back and ask for more instructions?”

According to the diplomat, the goons, thwarted by this unexpected manifestation of the British Parliament, left in some confusion. “Joy FM never was closed down”, he added.