CPP disowns Kwesi Pratt

Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jr., is not a member of the Convention People's Party (CPP), Deputy Communication Director of the Party, Mr Asani Tanoh, has said.

The CPP is disowning Mr. Pratt following his recent nomination to represent the presidency on the reconstituted 18-member National Media Commission (NMC) board chaired by Mr. Kwesi Gyan Apenteng, a member of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA).

Mr Tanoh told Class News' Parker Wilson in an interview that "for us the Convention People's Party, we are not surprised," adding that: "It's even long overdue. Possibly he should have been the adviser to the president."

He said Mr Pratt’s nomination vindicates the CPP’s long-held assertion that the senior journalist is more of a member of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) than the CPP.

"Kwesi Pratt has never been, and he can never even return to say he's a member of the CPP. He's taken an appointment that the NDC has, as it were, put on a silver platter for him. That is it. He's an NDC [member]. He's not a CPP [member]. We have decent people in the CPP who will fight to their last breath to ensure that masses in this country are saved from the massive corruption that they see in this country; the massive dissipation of the public purse," Mr Tanoh said.

Mr Pratt will be on the NMC with the following members: Fritz Frederic Baffour, Osei Bonsi Amoah and Richard Mawuli Quashiga all representing Parliament.

The others are Ernest Benjamin Kakra Essamuah representing the National Council of Woman and Development, Mr. Williams Orleans Oduro, Ghana Bar Association; Samuel Attah-Mensah, Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association; Dr. Doris Yaa Dartey, GJA; Dr. Perpetual S. Dadzie, Ghana Library Association; and Mr. Perry P.K. Ofosu, Ghana Institute of Journalism.

The rest include: Mr Kingsley Ofei-Nkansah, Trades Union Congress (Ghana); Alhaji Noor-Deen Saeed, Muslim Group; Apostle Abraham Ofori-Kuragu, Christian Group; Mrs Gina Blay, Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association; Mr Orlando Baeta, Advertisers Association of Ghana; and Mr Francis Kwarteng Arthur, Office of the President.