Entertainment pundit, Arnold Asamoah-Baidoo, has called on the Ghana Police Service to confirm if it is true they stopped Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy from performing together at the Ghana DJ Awards event.
According to him, the claims by Shatta Wale’s manager, Sammy Flex, detailing how the police stopped event organizers from booking the two acts to perform at the Ghana DJ Awards event came as a surprise to him.
He indicated that If it is true the police took such action due to an incident that happened in 2019, then it was a wrong move because the issue had been settled already.
Speaking on the United Showbiz programme aired on UTV and monitored by GhanaWeb, Arnold called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), George Akuffo Dampare to release a press statement to either confirm or refute the claims.
“I am disappointed in the police because during the 2019 debacle, an agreement was signed and we were made aware. So the police should have done a release to let everybody in the industry be aware of their demands.
"I expect a press release to explain the reason why the two acts cannot perform together and measures event organizers should also put in place to prevent chaos. I expect a release from the police to either refute or confirm otherwise this move will not augur well for the industry,’ he said.
He went ahead to express his displeasure with the decision by the police, adding that it would deny one of the affected acts his ‘daily bread.’
“When I saw the story, I felt it was a good move and an awkward move. With the good move, we all know the police deal with intelligence so for anything that will affect security they have to act quickly. So maybe they heard there would be a disturbance between the Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy’s fan base. But later, I got to know that the directive was based on an incident in 2019, and I felt awkward.
“Because these are two main acts in the country if that happens it affects the business of event organizers. Also, when you block the two from performing together, you are depriving one of his daily bread.”
Background
It emerged that the Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare intervened to stop two of Ghana’s reigning dancehall artistes, Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy from being booked together to perform at the Ghanan DJ Award.
The 11th edition of the Guinness Ghana DJ Awards scheme was held on Saturday, November 25, 2023, with only Shatta Wale performing as the headline act.
However, according to multiple reports and industry insider accounts, the decision to have only one of the two artistes headline the event was an option given to the organisers by the Ghana Police Service even though both acts were advertised.
This has been corroborated by Shatta Wale’s manager, Sammy Baah ‘Flex’.
“After the show, I got the opportunity to sit with Mercury Quaye who is the CEO of Ghana DJ Awards and I asked him that, my DJ, DJ Wobete told me that team Stonebwoy would be coming so what happened? And what he told me is exactly what I am about to say, I have my worries about what he told me and that is why I am even talking about it…
“He said that it was an order from above, an order from above in the area of security and I am talking about the Ghana Police Service security I mean. It was an order from above that as an organiser he received a call from top authorities in Ghana Police Service telling him that he could not put Stonebwoy and Shatta Wale on a show without their approval here in Ghana and that if he wanted to do that, he should have consulted Ghana Police for advice, for security tips, for the ways around it before he could do that. Because of that, they gave him an option to choose one of the two artists,” he recounted.
According to Sammy Baah’s account, Mercury Quaye was threatened by the police with an arrest if he were to go ahead and book the two acts for the event without their approval.
Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy have over the years been involved in various incidents of friction, some of which have resulted in chaos.
Recently, the two were in the news again after it emerged that they have both booked the Accra Sports Stadium concurrently for events in December.
Shatta Wale eventually cancelled his event citing the inability of his team to set up with some two or three days in between their shows.
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