Member of Parliament for Sagnarigu in the Northern Region A.B.A Fuseini has accused President Akufo-Addo of sabotaging the process of reinstating Accra-based radio stations – Radio Gold and Radio XYZ.
As a member of the Communication Committee in Parliament, he opined the minority in Parliament have engaged the Ministry of Communications as well as the National Communication Authority (NCA) at the committee level to restore the license of the radio stations but to no avail.
A.B.A Fuseini believes the process which started off smoothly has stalled due to what he claimed to be an interference by President Akufo-Addo, describing the posture of the president as a calculated attempt to close down media houses that criticizes his government.
The legislator made the claims on Thursday 12th December when responding to questions at the 7th edition of NDC Moment of Truth series at the party’s headquarters.
At the level of Communication Committee, he stressed that they engaged the minister, the director general of the National Communication Authority and the two radio stations which “we came to the understanding of finding an amicable solution to this.
“The minister gave her word to facilitate the process only if Radio Gold withdraw the matter from court which they did and reapplied for their frequencies but the minister suddenly reneged on her promise.”
The MP further alleged, “And we have a reliable information from the very top, indeed from the president himself, he is opposed to the return of Radio Gold and XYZ and so it’s an attempt to run down stations that are seemed to be fervent critics of the government”.
“The president does not take criticism lightly and so if there is any radio station that criticize him, he will find a way of coming after you,” he added.
He was quick to add that even though the stations ought to have fulfilled their obligations with NCA, he believes the approach was too “harsh and suspicious” which might have been engineered by government.
A.B.A Fuseini underscored it is only under President Akufo Addo that he finds a contraction in the media landscape in an era of freedom of expression.
He quizzed why the President finds it so erroneous for his government to be criticized whereas his predecessors suffered same.
By Maxwell Otoo Onua FM | 3news.com