By Cecil Mensah

Joy FM owner, Mr. Kwesi Twum, has finally succumbed to increasing intolerance from the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), in the run-up to the 2012 general elections, by shutting down Asempa FM’s flagship programme “Ekosi Sen” until further notice.

The host of the programme, Nana Kwabena Bobie Ansah, The Herald learnt, has also been suspended by Mr. Twum in accordance to NPP’s whims and caprices.

The actions, this paper learnt, were in direct response to the NPP’s mob action, last Wednesday, February 22, at the premises of Joy Fm, an Accra-based radio station, which resulted in troup of Police personnel and some private security persons, storming the offices of Multimedia Broadcasting, the mother company of the radio station to clear the NPP gangsters, who were led to the radio station by the party’s Youth Organizer, Anthony Kabo.

Intelligence report picked up by this paper can reveal that the decision of the NPP supporters to troop to the station was to lynch the presenter of the show for not pursuing the NPP agenda.

The NPP’s beef is that since Bobie Ansah took over the show, he had given leverage to the ruling National Democratic Congress communicators to malign the character of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the NPPs flag bearer for the 2012 elections, on the well patronized mid-afternoon programme broadcast in Twi.

For two consecutive days, avid listeners of the 94.7 frequency were left disappointed as their favourite programme was not aired on Thursday and Friday.

There are conflicting reports from the Multimedia Broadcasting group when The Herald made contact with some sources close to Asempa Fm.

While some told The Herald that Mr. Twum might rescind his decision to suspend the show, and bring it back later today with a different host, as the NPP wanted, others are saying the programme is completely dead.

After having failed to have the programme lose its steam with a boycott, they previously staged, the NPP, The Herald learnt, is deliberately engineering a plan to have the programme taken off air completely or have Bobie Ansah replaced by a host they could control.

For now, until Bobie Ansah is replaced, party insiders say the NPP will continue to exhibit gross disrespect towards him by disrupting the programme anytime they are invited.

Last week Tuesday, Alhaji Iddrisu Bature, the Managing Editor of Al-Hajj newspaper, was attacked by Mr. Titus Glover, an NPP activist, when the two appeared as panelists on the programme. The confusion nearly degenerated in fisticuffs resulting in the show being halted for a while.

On Wednesday, other panelists, namely Peter Boamah Otokunor, a member of the NDC’s communication team and Mr. John Kumah, a member of the NPP’s communication team also engaged in a heated debate, particularly, about the character of Nana Akufo-Addo.

Mr. Otokunor had spelt out the character of Nana Addo as a serial womanizer and a disorganized politician as per the Wikileaks report, which, did not go down well with the NPP panelist, who also went all out to spew falsehood about the character of Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills.

This resulted in an altercation between Mr. Kumah and the presenter of the show, which saw some NPP thugs led by Anthony Kabo, invading the premises of the radio station.

Political watchers are amazed at the decision of the Multimedia Broadcasting group to suspend the “Ekosi Sen” programme when incidents of such magnitude involving namely; Gabby Otchere-Darko, Nana Akomea, Kennedy Agyepong verbally attacking personalities such as Dr. Omane Boamah, James Agyemim-Aboateng and Felix Twemasi-Appiah respectively, on Joy Fm, which did not attract a similar sanction.

Meanwhile, one NPP fanatic by name Charles Nii Teiko Tagoe Jr. on his facebook page on internet, wrote; “Am soo happy Bobie Ansah has finally realized that with or without that pistol given to him by the Mills’ administration on him in the studios of Asempa Fm ,we are capable of silencing him if we so wish ..Why was he running away?

Earlier the same person had written that “after exhibiting just a tip of ‘all die be die’ at the premises of ‘multi-media’, Bobie Ansah, the wee-chewing imbecile of ‘Asempa-Fm’ has quit the radio station and he is said to be on his way to a newly opened radio station, which is owned by Daivid Lamptey, who is another NDC financial engineer cum top financier.

“But, we, the fanatics of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-addo, will make sure we deal with this wee-chewing Bobie, wherever he goes, if he doesn’t stop his cocaine/wee induced imbecility against Nana Addo”

“This is what the spirit of “ALL DIE BE DIE” is all about and we are watching with eagle eyes!!!” Fortunately, credible sources at the Ministry of Information have told The Herald that the government is watching developments at the radio station with keen interest as the various governing bodies like the National Media Commission and Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) have gone mute since the incident occurred last week.