Stonebwoy with a gun on stage
It was an exhibition of sheer lawlessness on Saturday night when two of Ghana’s biggest rival dancehall artistes‒ Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy‒ clashed on stage at the 2019 edition of Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMAs).
The crew of both artistes engaged in
fisticuffs on open stage during the award ceremony, which was telecast live on TV3 and DSTV to more than 43 countries.
Pundits say it is the most
unfortunate incident in the history of the VGMAs, and the police struggled to
maintain law and order.
Some music-loving fans and other
patrons were said to have sustained injuries in the ensuing melée.
Livingston Etse Satekla, whose stage
name is Stonebwoy, with his ‘army’ called Bhim Nation, pulled a gun in the
process when Charles Nii Armah Mensah (Shatta Wale) and his ‘militants’ called Shatta
Movement or SM for Life’ charged on him on stage.
Stonebwoy has since apologised for
the incident, saying, “I only had to act on natural instincts…I come in peace
and I go in peace!”
Shatta Wale, on the other hand, tweeted
after the incident that “Don’t play with a lion like that …He dislikes to smell
blood!!!”
His subsequent tweets called for
Stonebwoy’s arrest for pulling a gun on stage and asked the police to do their
work well.
The whole pandemonium started after
Abeiku Santana was called up stage to present an award for the songwriter of
the year.
After introducing himself, Abeiku
then notified the audience that he was on stage to rather present the award for
reggae/dancehall artiste of the year, which Stonebwoy was declared the winner.
While going on stage to pick his
award, Stonebwoy showed gestures to the TV cameras and allegedly to Shatta Wale
to literally prove that he has won that category over him for five times.
Shatta Wale and his ‘militants’ then
rushed onto the stage when Stonebwoy was about to give his acceptance speech
for winning the category.
Stonebwoy’s manager, Blakk Cedi, was
seen preventing Shatta’s crew from getting to Stonebwoy, who then pulled a gun
to also protect himself from possible attacks.
Strangely, before Stonebwoy was
announced as the reggae/dancehall artiste of the year, Shatta had won two
awards but in all of those, he sent representatives to pick them up for him.
It was, therefore, bizarre that Shatta
and his ‘militants’ could move menacingly on stage when he was not the
recipient of reggae/dancehall artiste of the year, making the audience believe
he was going there to cause trouble.
Incompetence
Charterhouse
Some of his followers are claiming he
wanted to go on stage to ‘congratulate’ his fiercest rival Stonebwoy, but many
people are blaming Charterhouse, the organisers of the VGMA, for the
incompetent manner in which they handled the entire event.
There were reports before the
announcement of the winners that the names were already in the public domain.
Shatta bragged before the programme that
he would sweep everything.
His posture showed clearly that he
had been told ‘something’ by the organisers.
After the pandemonium, the event was
halted for about 20 minutes, and Kwame Sefa Kayi and Berla Mundi took turns to announce
that two of the awards winners would be made known later to the public.
Those categories are the most popular
song of the year and artiste of the year.
The pandemonium left a lot of patrons
of the ceremony traumatised.
Popular actress Jackie Appiah was
seen being rushed out of the Dome of the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC)
by her manager, Samira Yakubu.
“I still can’t wrap my head around it..! Some
of my team members got tear gassed!!I hope everyone is safe now. We can’t let
this happen again! EVER!! We need to do better. For The People, For The Culture…
For The Music,” songstress Efya also said on Twitter.
DAILY GUIDE learnt that one man, who was ‘pepper-spraying’
other people was arrested by the police, but it was unclear which camp he
belonged to.
Security
Lapses
Police performance was put on the
spotlight, given the ease with which a firearm was handed over to Stonebwoy, as
the security detail on the scene clearly performed below expectation.
Many wondered what would have
happened had there been a terrorist attack, as it happens in other parts of the
world.
Police performance was put on the
spotlight, given the ease with which a firearm was handed over to Stonebwoy, as
the security detail on the scene clearly performed below expectation.
Many wondered what would have
happened had there been a terrorist attack, as it happens in other parts of the
world.
As at press time, Daily Guide
gathered that Stonebwoy had been invited by the Greater Accra Regional Police
Command over the gun issue.
It was unclear, however, the action the police would take against Shatta Wale.
By Francis Addo
The post Guns, Blows At VGMA appeared first on DailyGuide Network.
