Bernard Amankwah
Gospel artiste Bernard Amankwah has called on his colleagues in the country to boycott this year’s edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA), following an allegation levelled against them that they pay bribe to win awards.
The ‘Mercy Rescued Me’ singer stated that the bribery allegation made by the Head of Communication for Charterhouse (organisers of VGMA), George Quaye, that gospel artistes offer bribe for awards has undermined the credibility of Ghanaian gospel artistes.
To Bernard Amankwah, there was no need for George Quaye to have made that comment if he knew he was not going to put out names to support his claims.
He stressed that George Quaye’s inability to mention names of the gospel artistes who offered bribe for the awards paints all gospel artistes in the gospel industry black in the eyes of the public.
To him, he is starting to believe that this is the reason why some of the stakeholders in the creative arts industry have refused to recognise the awards scheme as a credible one.
Speaking on Adom FM’s Entertainment Review programme, Bernard described George Quaye’s bribery allegation as unfortunate, urging all gospel artistes in the country to boycott the awards.
In a related development, the leader of Ohemaa Mercy’s management team, Isaac Twum-Ampofo, has asked George Quaye to mention names of the gospel musicians who gave bribe else his artiste, Ohemaa Mercy, will return all the awards she has won.
According to him, the public would point accusing fingers at all gospel artistes who have either won awards or had nominations of paying bribe to attain the achievement, adding that gospel musicians in the country work very hard so they never expected George Quaye to make such a statement to dent their image.
The Vodafone Ghana Music Awards has since its inception been hit with several allegations of bribery, but none has since been substantiated yet.