Abraham Adjatey
Director of Public Affairs at the Ghana Police Service (GPS), ACP David Oklu, has disclosed that the Service has instructed an officer to carry out investigations into the arrest of some members of the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO) task force on Sunday, August 26 in Madina, Accra.
The task force personnel were reportedly on an official assignment inspecting the license of some musical equipment being used at an outdoor event when a team of policemen overwhelmed them, handcuffed and sent them to the Ayi Mensah Police Station, near Aburi, where they were detained overnight without hearing.
Reports indicate that the task force members who were in GHAMRO-branded uniforms with their identity cards were arrested upon an alert the police received from an unknown person in connection with the musical equipment.
In an interview with Andy Dosty on the Daybreak Hitz, head of the GHAMRO task force, Yaw Osborne, revealed that the arrest was a slap in the face of the law, as the personnel were carrying out their legally mandated operations under the Copyright Law of 2005.
He disclosed that the GHAMRO task force’s visit to Madina was to educate the music users on copyright laws protecting the music right owners and other related laws.
According to him, GHAMRO, under the copyright regulations, has the mandate to manage the music rights of music owners and also to issue license to music users such as night club operators, hotels, drinking bars, radio stations, restaurants and others operating in the country.
Yaw Osborne stated that his team sought to make the owners of the instruments understand that as long as the instruments were out and being used in the public space, then public charges applied.
This did not go down well with the owners, who then called on the police, leading to the arrest of his team.
He also indicated that he was in Kumasi at the time the unfortunate incident happened and so placed a call through to speak to the officer in charge who told him bluntly that there was nothing he could do since the commander of the Ayi Mensah Police Station personally detained them and had gone home.
BY Nii Adjei Mensahfio