<<Print>>

The phenomenon known as the �culture of silence�, which characterized the revolutionary days of the PNDC, was revisited yesterday at the premises of Kapital Radio, a private radio station at Nhyiaeso in the Ashanti Region. This follows the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) Boss Samuel Sarpong�s decision to storm the radio station in the company of fully-armed police officers, during a morning show around 9:30am, to cause the arrest of two persons for commenting on a decongestion exercise embarked upon by the assembly at the Ahodwo Roundabout recently. The two persons at the receiving end of Mr. Sarpong�s iron-fist rule were one Kwabena Konadu aka �Master Kwabena� and Kwabena Ofori, both victims of the KMA decongestion exercise. The two victims were among a group of four persons whose containers and shops were destroyed by the KMA and had visited the radio station to express their displeasure. Messrs Konadu and Ofori were hosted by Kwadwo Akoto Boateng on the morning show and the programme was going on smoothly until the duo passed a comment which the KMA Boss deemed offensive. The two victims of the decongestion exercise reportedly got angered and demanded that the KMA compensates them for destroying their goods and also relocate them, else they would set the KMA building on fire. Deputy News Editor of Kapital Radio Muftaw Mohammed, who disclosed the incident to DAILY GUIDE, said he was in the newsroom when the victims of the decongestion exercise threatened to set the KMA building on fire if their demands were not met. Mr. Mohammed aka �Mufti�, realizing the danger that the comments passed by the two persons could cause, said he dashed to the studios and ordered Konadu and Ofori to retract their comments. According to him, the two persons immediately retracted that particular comment and rendered an unqualified apology to listeners without hesitation. Mufti said minutes after Konadu and Ofori had retracted their comment and duly apologized, the KMA Boss stormed the station�s premises in a Land Cruiser registered GE 8568 X, followed by a pickup vehicle, also registered GN 4424 Y, and carrying KMA security guards. Mr. Sarpong, according to the Deputy News Editor of Kapital Radio, demanded that the station produces the two persons that threatened to set the KMA building on fire. At this juncture, the Kapital Radio, staff including reporters, producers, marketing personnel and security guards, apologized on behalf of the two persons and explained to Mr. Sarpong that the duo had retracted their comment and apologized. The apologies by the Kapital Radio staff seemed to have fallen on deaf ears as in the course of apologizing, the personal police guard of Mr. Sarpong picked his phone and made a call. A few minutes after the phone call, six fully-armed police officers emerged at the Kapital Radio premises in a car. Mr. Sarpong then ordered the police officers to arrest the two persons, which was duly carried out. A few minutes after the police and Mr. Sarpong had taken Konadu and Ofori away, some agitated victims of the decongestion exercise at Ahodwo Roundabout that got wind of the arrest of their colleagues stormed the station for a show-down with the police. But they were calmed down and urged not to take the law into their own hands by the staff of Kapital Radio before they eventually left the station, according to Mufti. The Deputy News Editor of Kapital Radio told DAILY GUIDE that his station invited Clement Kigeri, the Special Assistant of Mr. Sarpong, to react to any allegations that would be made by the victims of the decongestion exercise. Mufti said Mr. Kigeri turned down the invitation, saying he could not sit with the victims of the decongestion exercise at the studios at the same time to discuss the decongestion exercise. He said the Special Assistant to the KMA Boss promised to appear at the station at a later date to react to any allegations. Mufti revealed that the presence of the KMA Boss and the fully-armed police officers at the station got the staff traumatized and it affected their work for the day. Meanwhile, when contacted, Clement Kigeri, the Special Assistant to the KMA Boss, said his boss indeed caused the arrest of the two persons because they threatened on air to set the KMA office on fire. According to him, the KMA had made a formal complaint to the Central Police who are now handling the matter. Mr. Kigeri admitted that he was invited by the station but he declined to go due to security reasons. �I have been advised not to engage victims of decongestion exercise in a debate on radio,� he explained.