Pratt Cornered On Kokrokoo; Accuses Kwame Of Bias

It was a cocktail of issues on Peace FM's Kokrokoo, Friday with the Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper Kwesi Pratt Jnr  'cornered' by two New Patriotic Party National Executives and a host, he accused of bias.

Mr Pratt had said on Radio Gold's Alhaji & Alhaji programme that for the NPP to have created the impression that it was organising a national demonstration when in fact it was a barefaced NPP demonstration, the opposition party was clearly acting fraudulently.

His comments, which were reported on Peacefmonline.com, did not go down well with the NPP and on Friday, the party's National Organiser John Boadu and the former Youth Organiser of the same party Anthony Karbo came all guns blazing in an attempt to expose what they perceived to be hypocritical comments by Kwasi Pratt.

Mr Pratt himself was not happy with the report on peacefmonline.com, a report he claimed was "heavily tweaked" and yet when his words were repeated verbatim by Kwame Sefa Kayi, the newspaper editor sought refuge in attacking the host for putting together a skewed panel and for giving a sign language ostensibly to undermine him.

Alhaji&Alhaji
Mr Pratt did not understand why the NPP went on demonstration on the power crisis when the government has given a clear roadmap to solve the problem.

"Does the NPP have a plan to resolve the energy crisis before December? Is this demonstration a disagreement or a disapproval of the plans so far announced?  If they agree that these measures by Mahama are reasonable then why the disagreement"?

"This demonstration is different from demonstrations that have been organised by AFAG, Committee for Joint Action or the Alliance for change. Those appear not to have been party demonstrations and the organisers were drawn from different political parties.

"But this one is a barefaced NPP demonstration. I am not saying being a barefaced NPP demonstration is bad. It is not bad. Political parties can organise demonstrations. They should be bold to say 'we are organising this demonstration to further our ambition, interest and so on' but to call a press conference and tell us it is not an NPP demonstration but a national demonstration is fraudulent, clearly fraudulent," Kwame Sefa Kayi quoted Pratt as saying on Alhaji&Alhaji.

Peacefmonline headlined their report on Pratt's comment as: "NPP demo is clearly fraudulent; to participate is to endorse their stance" -Kwasi Pratt.

However on Kokrokoo, Mr Pratt did not deny the quotes attributed to him except to say that he had problems when some leading members of the party created the impression it was a national demonstration when it was clearly an NPP demonstration. That was fraudulent.

Anthony Karbo did not understand why Kwasi Pratt on the same issue would say one thing on one radio station but say a completely different thing on Radio Gold.

John Boadu fired that for Kwesi Pratt to claim that the NPP had said it was organising a national demonstration was also fraudulent on his part because nobody said at the press conference called by the NPP that demonstration was a national one.

Mr Pratt felt ambushed by the two men whom he claimed hardly gave him any chance to explain himself and was quick to point to a skewed panel.

"Would you allow me to make my comment and stop this unnecessary interference...This is what happens when you skew the panel..." Pratt lunged at the host and producers of the show.

Karbo fired back, saying, could there ever be a more skewed panel on radio than the ones put together on Radio Gold's Alhaji and Alhaji, the platform on which Mr Pratt made those comments?

Sign Language
When the argument appeared heated with Karbo accusing Pratt of clutching at straws, the newspaper editor turned the heat on Kwame Sefa Kayi, host of the Kokrokoo programme.

He accused Mr Kayi of giving the other two panellists a sin on his blindside - something which he felt completely uncomfortable with.

"When I was looking the other way I saw you giving them a sign," Pratt accused.

"I was very uncomfortable because I know how this programme functions. This programme is not done in sign language and whenever the presenter wants to tell people to comport themselves, he says it.

"It just happens I was looking the other way and I saw you giving them a sign language. My interpretation of the signal is different," he stated.

Mr Pratts himself admitted the sign language was to tell Karbo to keep quiet but still maintained he was uncomfortable with it.

Kwame Sefa Kayi said he had signaled many people on the show to either calm down or to keep quiet but if Mr Pratt feels offended by his sign language to Karbo then he apologised, an apology Pratt accepted in good faith.