Kwame Sefa Kayi and Allotey Jacobs
Host of award winning Peace Fm Kokroko morning show, Kwami Seffa Kayi is ruling out taking out Bernard Allotey Jacobs, immediate past Central regional chairman of the NDC from the programme.
Chairman Allotey as he is affectionately called is a regular panel member of the Wednesday show with Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr, editor in chief of the New Crusading Guide, Kwamena Duncan, Central regional minister and another NDC representative.
Allotey was original representing the opposition NDC until the current Communications officer of the party, Sammy Gyamfi found it difficult to accommodate his independent view, stripping him of his representation.
Unable to take Allotey’s candid comment any longer on the show, Sammy Gyamfi formally wrote to Peace Fm, withdrawing NDC participation on the Kokroko show until the former Central regional chairman has been dropped from the show.
But Sefa Kayi says over his dead body to drop Chairman Allotey from the show.
In a brief chat with DGN Online, Sefa Kayi, popularly called ‘Chairman General’ indicated that Allotey also known as ‘educated fisherman’ will continue to be part of his Wednesday panel.
“This is a man commuting from Cape Coast to Accra in odd hours just to take part in my show, I can’t drop him,” Sefa Kayi hints.
Boycott
The NDC had announced a boycott from the show claiming that it is taking the action because remarks by Allotey Jacobs, on national issues, are against the party, suspecting ‘sell out’.
“The National Communication Bureau of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) wishes to inform all its communicators, media monitors, and officials that the party has boycotted Peace (104.3) FM’s morning show (Kookrokoo) effective today, Wednesday, 6th May 2020,” Sammy Gyamfi,” it said in the statement.
The NDC stated that all efforts to get the producers and host of the programme to replace Allotey Jacobs with a fair-minded NDC member had proved futile, indicating that “the party continues to be treated with utmost contempt.”
The opposition party indicated that the host and producers of the radio programme had “continuously foisted on the NDC” an unfair panelling system for the past eight months, by projecting Allotey Jacobs as a member of the party to take one of the two slots reserved for the NDC.
The statement pointed out that Allotey Jacobs is often introduced as a social commentator with strong leanings to the NDC “ostensibly to spite the NDC” despite consistently complaining to the management of the station for an amicable resolution of the matter.
“Specifically, the reason for this boycott has to do with the unreasonable decision of the producers and host of the programme to permanently reserve one of the two slots the party has traditionally had on Wednesdays on the show to Mr. Allotey Jacobs.
“This unfair treatment flies in the face of the long-standing tradition of the programme, which allocates two slots each to the NDC and the NPP on Wednesdays and Fridays respectively,” it said.
Sammy Gyamfi said although the NDC acknowledged the production and editorial discretion of the radio station to give its platform to whoever it deems fit, the party considered the discretion unfair, especially when the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) continues to maintain its two slots on the programme on Fridays.
For the NDC, Peace FM has deliberately reduced its slots to one “to satisfy the whim of a dictatorial host and his poodle.”
“In protest to this flagrant disregard for fairness by the host and production crew of the programme, the National Communication Bureau of the NDC has decided to cease the placement of party communicators on the ‘Kookrokoo’ show forthwith,” the statement said.