The brawl that occurred during the 2019 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards event in Accra cannot be attributed to security lapses on the part of the event organisers, Charterhouse.
This is the assertion of the company’s head of communications, George Quaye.
He believes that the unfortunate incident has more to do with the grand issue of rivalries between musicians and how they are managed.
According to him, both Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy, who were the centre of the chaos failed to act responsibly by holding themselves back from taking certain actions which clearly wasn’t going to ensure peace at the event.
Speaking on Citi TV‘s Point on View on Monday, George Quaye said due to the height of loyalty they enjoy from fans, some of whom have grown to become fanatics, he expected the artistes to have carefully considered their actions before carrying them out to ensure that they were not misinterpreted by the fans and taking overboard.
He chided both Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy for exercising bad judgement in the way they acted on the awards night, leaving to the pandemonium that marred what was expected to be the event’s 20th-anniversary celebration.
Many are those who have accused Charterhouse of not putting in place adequate security to avert the situation but George Quaye said “it goes beyond that. You will expect an act to know that if I get up here, or if I do this, this is what will happen… Another act should also know that this is what is happening, or the act manager knows that this not the place where I draw out a weapon,” he said.
He said about 85 security personnel were sourced from various national security installations as well as a private company, the highest number the company has ever recruited for its music awards, to oversee the security of this year’s event.
