<<Print>>

Ace Ghanaian broadcaster of international repute, Komla Dumor was reported dead on Saturday, 18th January, 2014 in his London home as a result of Cardiac arrest. The world and Ghanaians in general welcomed the news with shock, thus culminating in lots of condolences from prominent Ghanaians including politicians and members of the media, both local and International. Managing Editor of the Today Newspaper, Richmond Keelson, who has known Komla since the early 1990s has recalled how they met as national Service Personnel of the state media. According to him, Komla, who upon his return from Nigeria, could not get admission into the Medical School, had to enroll at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) as a service person but his talent was never discovered until when he reported for the GBC from a trade fair. �This is when many got to know him and we were all like wow, what a voice and what a talent and it was from that time that he was occasionally invited to do voice-overs for some of the news items�,� he recounted. He added that after the service at the state broadcaster, most of the guys including late President Mills� spokesperson, Koku Anyidoho, and host of Good Morning Ghana show on Metro TV, Randy Abbey, and Kwaku Boafo Agyemang, all went to various directions to seek for greener pastures with Komla Dumor returning to school. He continued that the 1993 batch of national Service personnel from GBC were not shocked when they heard of the exploits of Komla on Joy FM where he reported on Traffic Watch in the capital. �Komla doing well as a nationally approved successor for Tommy Annan Forson on the Joy FM Morning Show was not a surprise at all as he was tipped for greater works�,� he added. He described the late Komla Dumor as an affable person who never lost touch with friends and also valued relationships, saying he once showed level of gratitude to him when he met him [Keelson] after a decade of separation. He thus qualified his untimely death as a great loss to Africa and the world in general, stating that it would take time for the world to have his replacement. Mr. Keelson therefore sent words of condolences to the family of the late Dumor and urged friends to take heart as the man they are mourning is one who left the world with a great legacy. Asked if he knew Komla had chronic ailments that could have resulted in his untimely demise, he said he knew of none like that but seized the opportunity to caution journalists and the public to make use of every available opportunity to check up on their health. Mawuko Zumerlo of the National Communications Authority (NCA) who was a colleague of the late Dumor described Komla as a man who put himself into everything he does and advised the public to learn from his example.