GHANA ACTORS GUILD PUNCHES FIPAG OVER BIG AKWES' SUSPENSION

The Ghana Actors Guild (GAG) has displayed its disappointment in the leadership of the Film Producers’ Association of Ghana (FIPAG) for their suspension of services engagement with actor, Big Akwes.

Akwasi Asamoah known in showbiz as Big Akwes on RTV’s ‘Agoro Fie’ challenged movie producers, directors and actors to deny his assertion that they have been sleeping with actresses for roles, adding that whoever comes out to deny, he will curse him.

The leadership of FIPAG in a release expressed their disgust at the conduct of Big Akwes and slapped him with a twenty-four month sanction, asking its members not to engage his services; an action the Ghana Actors’ Guild finds unfortunate.

Public Relation’s Officer of the Ashanti regional branch of the GAG, Emmanuel Nii Adjetey, in an interview with Abrantepa on Radio Univers stated that, FIPAG should have waited for a while before taking any decision.

“He (Big Akwes) is our member. He is not a member of FIPAG so I find it difficult to understand why they have sanctioned him. They should have given us that respect, so to speak," he said.

Adding, "Earlier, we had released a statement distancing ourselves from the statement made by Big Akwes and ordering him to retract and apologize for those submissions on that same platform else, punitive measures would be taken against him."

“Why then should FIPAG take such stance when he has apologized? It would have been better if they had met us so we all take a decision,” he lamented.

Public Relations Officer of FIPAG, Michael Kweku Ola, reacting to the issue on Brunch2Lunch told Abrantepa that, the association did no wrong in asking its members not to engage the services of Big Akwes.

“We have not sanctioned him. We don’t have the power to sanction anyone who is not under our umbrella. We are only dissociating ourselves from him; meaning he can work with any producer who is not our member,” Ola Michael explained.

He further indicated, “But the other side is that, that producer will have to find a way to sell the movie so long as it doesn’t come to the market standard that we have created. Moreover, we copied the guild. It’s something we do to sanitize the industry.”

Mr. Adjetey said the Ashanti regional branch of the guild has called on its national office to see how best to resolve the issue with FIPAG since the two-year suspension of engagement of services is too harsh.