The host of Metro TV\u2019s Good Evening Ghana, Paul Adom Otchere, has chastised Sydney Casely-Hayford for insinuating that he took \u2018soli\u2019 from the President before the latter appeared on his show last Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much soli did I take when I interviewed President Mahama? I think that this is a very poor comment\u2026an intelligent and respectable man like Sydney Casely-Hayford will cast such insinuations, such aspersions, baseless, of no basis. He has no reason to cast these assertions yet, he does,\u201d he fumed.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”caUr8vhrbSg04YQ34afpp5IcunB7Bj5K”]Financial Analyst, Sydney Casely-Hayford on Citi FM\u2019s<\/strong> The Big Issue<\/strong><\/em> said: \u201cHe [Mahama] was on the Paul Adom Otchere show and I don\u2019t know how much \u2018soli\u2019 exchanged hands before the show happened.\u201d<\/p>\n The President of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe on his part also remarked that the interview with the President was hurriedly done saying, \u201cIt happened at such speed that it was out of normal.\u201d<\/p>\n But an angry Adom Otchere called into the show and\u00a0disclosed that he, together with the management of Metro TV had been hounding the President over the past eight months to grant the interview.<\/p>\n According to him, his outfit was \u201cdisappointed that in all the democracy we\u2019ve had, no sitting Ghanaian President had granted an interview to a local radio or TV station and we thought that we should do that and get that done.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo we campaigned to President Mahama that you are a President friendly to the media so in your time, let us get this done and we\u2019ve been working on this for a long time now,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n He therefore described Casely-Hayford’s comments as \u201cthe lowest that we could assign to all these\u2026and I call it the resurgence of free speech because I was there when free speech started.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHere is Sydney Casely-Hayford after 14,000 interviews and 14 years of broadcasting the programme; we have an interview with the President and he says how much soli did you take for interviewing President Mahama?\u201d he rhetorically asked.<\/p>\n He continued saying, \u201cthis is disgraceful, that is just disgraceful\u2026and my good friend Franklin Cudjoe said the interview had been hurriedly arranged\u2026you don\u2019t work with me, you don\u2019t know what I do every day, you don\u2019t know how many letters I have written.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Adom Otchere further pointed out that it is disappointing for \u201cpeople like Sydney to derogate another person\u2019s efforts just so that they become relevant\u201d<\/p>\n Apology<\/strong><\/p>\n Casely-Hayford in response apologized for his comments.<\/p>\n He said: “You\u2019ve taken a sarcastic comment and you have turned it into a serious fight for no reason\u2026Everybody knows Paul Adom Okeyer\u2019s focus\u2026I have been on your programme a few times and if I didn\u2019t like your programme or agree with what you are saying, I wouldn\u2019t bother to show up because it\u2019s not a paying; it\u2019s a job that you do as a public gesture so you have my apologies if you think it was an insult. It was a sarcastic comment.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n –<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Click on attached audio to listen to Paul Adom Otchere<\/p>\n