Deputy Editor Attacked By "Govt Agents"

The Deputy Editor of the Daily Guide, Mr Ebenezer Ato Sam, popularly known as Baby Ansabah, was on Monday, 31st May, 2004 subjected to barrage of verbal assault from people in government who called his personal phone to tell him pieces of their mind.

Mr Ato Sam, who is making quite a name for himself as a social commentator on the airwaves of Accra and is infamous for rationalizing the various shortcomings of the NPP Administration, has made the unpardonable mistake of calling for the Minister of Finance to be held responsible for the mess arising out of the CNT/CNTCI brouhaha.

Investigations conducted by the Searchlight, revealed that on Monday morning Mr Ato Sam, who calls himself Baby Ansabah in print and on radio, appeared on Kwame Sefa Kayi's morning newspaper review programme on Peace FM, where the CNT/CNTCI matter, which has occupied a lot of public attention in recent times, came up for discussion.

Mr Ato Sam, who was on the panel with other commentators like Mr Ralph Asiamah of Ghanaian Post, Opanin Agyekum of the Institute of Languages, University of Ghana and Mr Kenneth Kuranchie of the Searchlight, was reacting to calls made by other members of the panel that the various government officials behind the CNT/CNTCI issue should be held accountable.

Mr Ato Sam, who thrives on and specializes in springing the government and its officials out of tight corners whenever he is on radio, then said, in his contribution, that Ministers like Mr Alan Kyeremanteng, Dr Richard Anane and Professor Ameyaw Ekumfi, three Ministers cited for having played a part in the CNT/CNTCI affair, only wrote proposals to the Ministry of Finance, and actually played no part in negotiating for the loan.

According to Mr Ebenezer Ato Sam, therefore, there was no need to hold the other ministers responsible. However, should the Minister of Finance fail to come clean on the loan, continued Mr Ato Sam, he should be held responsible. This remark apparently did not go down well with certain individuals close to the Minister of Finance Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, who started burning up the phone lines to the publisher of the Daily Guide, the Hon Freddie Blay, the 1st Deputy Speaker and his wife, trying to find out why Mr Ato Sam said the things he said on radio.

That was before Mr Ato Sam got out of the Peace FM studios. The Searchlight learnt that the effort to browbeat Mr Ato Sam was led and organised by one of the assistants of Mr Osafo-Maafo (name withheld for now). The same individual then led the chorus of telephone calls to Mr Ato Sam soon after he stepped out of the studio.