Radio stations shutdown: NCA is highly incompetent – Prof. Gyampo

A political scientist and a lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo has descended heavily on the National Communications Authority (NCA) describing it as incompetent entity following what he describes as their lack of tact and improper timing in the closure of two pro-NDC radio stations in Accra.closing down radio stations affiliated to the opposition party.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News Ghana, Prof. Gyampo reiterated his earlier position that the action of the NCA in closing down Radio Gold and Radio XYZ lacked proper timing and sense of judgement.

In his view, though the move of the NCA to clamp down on radio stations operating without licenses is a good one, it ought to be done with precision.

Prof. Gyampo is of the belief the political tension in the country is too high to accommodate such actions from state institutions. He says the development leaves room for the opposition to accuse government of victimization particularly at a time when the National Chairman of the largest opposition party in Ghana is being invited for questioning over kidnappings and market fires in the country.

Prof. Gyampo rejected the NCA’s explanation that Radio Gold had been operating without license for 19 years saying that excuse was not a good enough one to base a closure on.

“You should be ashamed of yourself for saying somebody has operated without license for 19 years. What were you doing? Whoever says that from the NCA must be sacked. You should be ashamed. If the person has operated for 19 years and you have not been able to shutdown that station,” Prof Gyampo said in the interview with ABC News Ghana.

He quizzed, “what were you doing? Forget about 19years, for the past 2 years what have you been doing. You then wait for the station to do a live broadcast for NDC press conference, that’s where you go and shut it down?” “It is more related to the incompetence by the NCA,” the political analyst noted.

Commenting on the viewpoint that the action undertaken by NCA amounts to suppressing press freedom, Prof. Gyampo disregarded the claim by a section of Ghanaians saying the onus was on the radio stations to do the right thing (renew their license). That however, he stressed in addition, did not give the NCA the authority to conduct such a ‘shameful’ act, he said.