Maame Frimpongmaa Korankye, hostess of Afi Sem programme on Lawson television, in Kumasi was today, April 14, pushed to the wall, forcing her to bring her show to an abrupt end.
The incident unfolded after producers failed to call an accused person who was brought by his supposed daughter and baby mama.
As the programme is designed, the guests brought the Pokuase based father, who they wanted a paternity test with to ascertain if the 22-year old daughter is his as the lady says she is unsure if he is her true father due to reasons she enumerated.
According to the young women and her mother, for good 21 years, the accused never took responsibility of his daughter even though he accepted the pregnancy and named her after his mother.
Having dropped out from Junior High School (JHS) due to financial challenges while living with her grandmother, the complainant said she joined her mother in Kumasi to hustle after her grandmother died.
In the course of her stay, she and her mother linked up with her father and lured him to Kumasi creating a false impression that his abandoned daughter was getting married and needed to be present to take the bride price.
Without shame, the absentee father quickly organized himself and travelled to Kumasi only to be told it was a hoax. After reuniting with his daughter, the accused was asked to find something for her daughter to do.
In response he agreed and asked her to find a container and get her the amount involved to set her up. But interestingly, after he left for Accra, he refused to take her calls but according to the mother, he takes her calls.
This is what triggered the daughter to drag him to the popular courtroom-style radio programme to do the DNA test to confirm whether or not he is the father.
After listening to mother and daughter, MFK as she is affectionately, to balance the narrative proceeded to call the man to hear his side only to be hit with a wall. Even earlier recorded interview they had with the man, producers struggled to play the audio on air.
Initially, it was assumed that, it was the phone lines that were giving producers problem but later it was clarified that, it was rather as a result of absence of phone credit.
It was one of the workers who apparently intervene to purchase credit but that did not stop MFK from abruptly bringing the programme to an early stop.
After several lamentations and disappointment, the hostess announced that she was cutting short the programme because even though she had other cases, there was no way she was going to hear them and not be able to call interested parties.
As she was joking, MFK decried the situation saying she was only going to invite one lady who had come to give update of a previous case, companies that advertise on the show to sell their products following which she will end it all.
Her panel members, Elder, Maa Lydia and Afia, in turns condemned the development saying it is about time the station managers sat up to address concerns of workers. After the advertisements, she closed the programme around 11:30.
The whole drama started around 10:40am with the first case, while the programme itself started at 10am.
“I am ending the programme because we cannot come and sit here and discuss a case without hearing from the accused person. So let those waiting to give update come so I end the programme. Because we have to speak with accused person and there is no phone to perform that exercise.”
According to her the situation has persisted for two months without solution. “It is serious. You wake up bath, dress and come to work. As I sit here, I am not a makeup person but because of this work; turpentine is used to make me up, you cannot even clean it afterwards. The lashes I have to pull them, then my eyes will be hurting.
Then the resources to work with are nowhere to be found. Programmes Manager, did you not check to see there was no credit? All you know is commanding producer to bring document to assess. What is the point in doing that”, she explained.
Afia on her part said “my challenge is that even as we are complaining no manager has come in. It was Stephen that was buying phone with his personal phone. That is my problem”.
By Gifty Boateng