(JED/IFEX) – On 15 July 2004, just after noon (local time), about a dozen armed police officers raided the premises of the privately-owned television station Canal Kin Télévision (CKTV) in Kinshasa/Gombe. The station is owned by Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, together with one of Gabonese President Omar Bongo’s sons. The police officers accompanied Dénis Lessie […]
(JED/IFEX) – On 15 July 2004, just after noon (local time), about a dozen armed police officers raided the premises of the privately-owned television station Canal Kin Télévision (CKTV) in Kinshasa/Gombe. The station is owned by Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, together with one of Gabonese President Omar Bongo’s sons.
The police officers accompanied Dénis Lessie to CKTV’s premises. Lessie is a minister with the Arche de Noé (Noah’s Ark) Church and a well-known Kinshasa-based televangelist. He went to the station to protest in person over remarks made live on the air by Théodore Ngoy during a previous live broadcast of the programme 100 % CK. Ngoy is a minister with the Gombe Church and a Kinshasa-based lawyer. In an 8 July broadcast of the programme, Ngoy had accused Lessie of “fraud and influence peddling.”
On 15 July, Lessie burst into the CKTV studios during the live broadcast of 100 % CK and demanded to make a statement on the air. CKTV security guards at the scene prevented him from doing so, and an altercation ensued between the station’s security guards and police officers assigned to Lessie’s security. More police officers were called in to “protect Mr. Lessie”. The programme’s broadcast was interrupted for several minutes.
For the past few months, Lessie, who also owns the Christian television station Nzondo TV, has been locked in a dispute with Papy Ekonzo, Nzondo TV’s principal shareholder. Ekonzo recently had the Christian station’s equipment seized and it was forced to go off the air. Lessie subsequently had Ekonzo arrested. The Nzondo TV shareholder has been incarcerated at Kinshasa’s Penitentiary and Reeducation Centre (Centre pénitentiaire et de rééducation de Kinshasa, CPRK) for the past two months. Ngoy is acting as his defence lawyer.
Told of the incident at CKTV’s premises, a JED representative rushed to the scene and met with Lessie, who apologised for the skirmish triggered by his behaviour.
