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