Labone “Mafia” Coffee Shop Behind Captain Smart’s Suspension

Popular radio presenter, Godsbrain Smart, aka Captain Smart, who was yesterday suspended from the Angel FM morning show has revealed that the plot to get rid of him was hatched at the infamous coffee shop at Labone.

Captain Smart has been given a one-month suspension for apparently being too critical of the Akufo Addo administration. 

Speaking on Accra-based Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana show on Thursday, May 6, Captain Smart narrated: “…the night before yesterday [Wednesday, May 5, 2021], I have had information that some people have met at the [Labone] Coffee Shop to plan what should happen.”

According to him, the coffee shop meeting was scheduled to specifically discuss him because “Captain Smart is becoming too loud, he is making some people unpopular…”

It is not clear the particular hatchet men who schemed Captain Smart’s witch-hunting, but the coffee shop mafia is often referenced to some iconic media practitioners such as Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako, the Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide, Kwame Sefa Kayi, the host of Peace FM’s morning show, Egbert Faibille Jnr, a journalist-turned-lawyer, Randy Abbey, host of Metro TV’s morning show, among several others.

Allegedly, the coffee shop patrons are a sort of mafia group that are met and instructed by the regime as to what needs to be done in terms of projecting the government’s image. Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah is alleged to be the liaison between the coffee shop mafia and the regime. 

The reportedly hatch plots are then transmitted through rented Radio stations, TV stations and publishing houses.

The station’s General Manager, Kwadwo Dickson, revealed that Captain Smart was sent home by the station’s proprietor Dr. Kwaku Oteng for utterances that he claims were uncharitable to the Akufo Addo administration and some of its ministers.

Dr. Oteng is a known loyalist of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the latest action reinforces the growing reputation of the Akufo Addo Administration as intolerant to media freedom.

Captain Smart may have become collateral damage in the media clampdown, given the fact that he is widely perceived as a poodle of the governing party. In fact, during the contentious plan by President Akufo Addo to blow over US$100 million to construct a controversial cathedral, he openly exhibited his support for the government by physically donating a symbolic cement bag to the contentious project.

The Akufo Addo administration is increasingly cementing a legacy as one of the most intolerant to media freedom in the history of the country, following the sheer number of media organisations and personalities that have been targeted by the government.

The government has clamped down on dissenting voices, including the mysterious assassination of investigative journalist, Ahmed Hussein-Suale who was investigating a serious case of corruption at the Jubilee House.

Other journalists such as David Tamakloe, the Editor-in-Chief of Whatsup News has been inexplicably arrested at gunpoint twice within six months for reporting on issues of injustice and corruption.

Others, including Manasseh Awuni Azuri, etc have had to escape into exile or gone into hiding for the explosive revelations they made about the government.

The situation in the country last week forced the hitherto private Dr. Sam Jonah to issue an explosive statement where he warned that the country has degenerated into the days of despotic leadership and the “Culture of Silence”.