GHAMRO SPLITS …GOES TO COURT TODAY

The Human Rights Division of the Accra High Courts would this morning hear the case in which highlife musician Nana Ampadu (with 100 others) is seeking an injunction on the Board of the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO), accusing it of overstaying its tenure, refusing to give annual financial accounts and refusing to hold elections to elect a new set of leaders.

Interestingly, the GHAMRO Board is split over the court case and some of the Board Members have filed an affidavit in support of Nana Ampadu’s application, saying they absolutely agree that an injunction be placed on the Board immediately.

The other half of the Board has however filed their defence disagreeing with Nana Ampadu’s application and they would all be appearing in court this morning to state their cases.

GHAMRO Board members in support of Nana Ampadu’s application are Bice ‘Obour’ Osei Kuffour, president of the Musicians union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Alhaji Ahmed Banda aka Bandex, representing the Ghana Association of Phonographic Industries (GAPI), Kojo Antwi, representing the Association of Music Right Owners (AMRO.GH) and gospel musician Mary Ghansah, representing CAMAG.

Indeed, two of the GHAMRO Board Members, Rex Omar and Charles Amoah officially resigned their positions citing similar reasons of lack of accountability against the Chairman, Carlos Sekyi.

According to the writ of summons filed by Nana Ampadu and the 100 others, GHAMRO Board Chairman Carlos Sekyi and other GHAMRO Board members including Amandzeba Nat Brew, K.K. Kabobo and Mark Okraku Mantey “have deliberately refused to organize even a single Annual General Meeting since May 2011 when they took office as interim Board Members.”

It said Carlos Sekyi, Nat Brew, K.K. Kabobo and Mark Okraku Mantey “have been dissipating the funds of the organization to the disadvantage of the Rights Owners and have been paying themselves monthly salaries between GH2000 and GH4000 excluding other allowances even though the regulations of the organization expressingly forbids the payment of salaries.”

They claimed Mr. Sekyi, since he started collecting monies on behalf of music rights owners in 2011, has not accounted for the monies till date. They explained that Carlos Sakyi in his capacity as interim chairman of the GHAMRO Board is mandated by law to give yearly account of the monies GHAMRO collects but this is the third year running and he has not given a single account.

SARKODIE TO PERFORM @ BET EXPERIENCE EVENT

Sarkodie, and a number of African acts have been announced as performers for BET’s L.A experience event, happening from June 27-29.

The event, a pre music concert to the main awards show will feature some of the biggest names in music from around the world.

Nigeria’s Tiwa Savage, and Ice Prince as well as South Africa’s Mafikizolo will also perform as part of the “Music around the Globe” presentation during the weekend of June 27-29.

All acts, performing at the Experience at L.A. LIVE presented by Coca-Cola®, are nominated in the “BET Awards” ‘Best International Act: Africa’ category.

This will be the first time that Mafikizolo and Tiwa Savage have performed in the United States, and the announcement follows their wins at the MTV Africa Music Awards in the ‘Best Group’ and ‘Best Female’ categories respectively.

Sarkodie also took home a MAMA for ‘Best Hip Hop’.

This is the first time international acts have performed as part of the BET Experience at L.A. LIVE presented by Coca-Cola® since the introduction of international BET Award categories, ‘Best International Act: Africa’ and ‘Best International Act: UK’ in 2010.

Emmy and Grammy® Award winning comedian Chris Rock will host the “BET Awards” 2014, live on Sunday, June 29, 2014 at 8pm ET live from the Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles, CA.

I DON’T HAVE SEX; TOO BUSY – GHANAIAN ACTRESS

Ghanaian Actress Chichi Neblett has told News-One that she is too busy to have sex and does not even think about it.

Chichi parted ways with the father of her baby a few years ago and has since kept her love life out of the public domain.

News-One caught up with her on Thursday and tried to find out about her love life.

According to her, “For me, once you are a strong woman and making your ends meet through your own work and business, what concern do you have with a man? Chichi is single and happy.”

She said she is not crazy about sex and could stay without if for a long time.

“No I don’t have sex. I don’t even have the time to think about sex because I have been very busy with work, so I don’t think about sex at all. When you are idle and have nothing doing, then you have a lot going through your mind and it pops up, but in short I don’t think about sex,” she explained.

The Liberian born Ghanaian actress is among industry players, who got nominations for Sunday City People Entertainment Awards.

She was nominated for Best New Actress of the Year and Best Promising Actress categories. Chichi managed to break into Nigeria’s Nollywood industry recently.

She recently did a movie shot with Ini Edo, Funke Akindele and a number of others.