The Alliance for Northern Entertainers (ANE) has descended heavily on the Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive Mr Iddrisu Musah “Superior” for his comments in the unfortunate road accident that led to the death of six people last week.
Some fans of the popular hiplife artiste, Fancy Gadam, were confirmed dead in a gory accident in Tamale. They were going to the Tamale Airport to welcome Fancy Gadam and his Nigerian counterpart, Patoranking for a mega show scheduled for Saturday, June 30, 2018.
The event coincided with the mayor’s excellence awards which was supposed to have the vice president Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as its special guest.
It was not clear if the last minute announcement that the vice president couldn’t make an appearance as widely reported had anything to do with the incident which angered Mr. Superior who shouted on top of his voice and made all manners against Fancy Gadam.
Speaking to the media in Tamale, ANE expressed its deepest condolences to the bereaved families of the six persons who died in the accident.
The Alliance For Northern Entertainers condemns the manner in which musical, political and other forms of floats are being conducted in the Tamale Metropolis and calls on all stakeholders to work within the ambit of the laws to instill discipline as well as to maintain law and order as prescribed in Public Order Act (Act 491).
We as a group made up of the Northern Entertainment Group condemn the recent comments made by The Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive Iddrisu Musah Superior banning all musical concerts at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium.
According to Mr. Arnold Mashud, the interim chairman of ANE, the mayor’s directive was harsh and a calculated attempt to kill the showbiz industry in Tamale.
However, this is not to admit the accident that occurred on June 29, 2018 involving a Zylofon Van and an articulator truck the result of a float and warrants a ban of all musical concerts at the
stadium.
We wish to state clearly that there is no relationship between the unfortunate accident and activities at the stadium. There has never been any death registered at the stadium and the unfortunate accident should not be used as a reason to ban musical concerts at the stadium.
BELOW IS THE FULL STATEMENT
PRESS STATEMENT BY THE ALLIANCE FOR NORTHERN ENTERTAINERS (ANE)
We wish to express our deepest condolences to the bereaved families of the six persons who lost their lives in a gruesome accident in Tamale on June 29, 2018. May the Almighty God console the
families.
The Alliance For Northern Entertainers (ANE) condemns the manner in which musical, political and other forms of floats are being conducted in the Tamale Metropolis and calls on all
stakeholders to work within the ambit of the laws to instill discipline as well as maintain law and order as prescribed in the Public Order Act (Act 491). We as a group made up of the Northern
Entertainment industry players will support any move by a recognized authority to structure the conduct of floats.
However, this is not to admit the accident that occurred on June 29, 2018 involving a Zylofon Van and an articulator truck was as a result of a float and warrants a ban of all musical concerts at the
stadium. We wish to state clearly that there is no relationship between the unfortunate accident and activities at the stadium. There has never been any death registered at the stadium and the unfortunate accident should not be used as a reason to ban musical concerts at the stadium.
Article 12 Clause 3 section c of the Local Government Act (Act 936) states that one of the functions is to promote and support productive activity and social development in the Metropolis
and remove any obstacles to initiative and development.” This function of the Metropolitan Assembly should be the interest of the Honorable Mayor to support the entertainment industry
since the industry is a tool for social development.
The Entertainment industry has contributed immensely towards the socio-economic development of the Tamale Metropolis in particular and the nation as a whole. The entertainment industry has
been a major calmer of nerves during each election year in the Tamale Metropolis.
Article 12 Clause 3 Section g of the Local Government Act (Act 936) also states that “in co-operation with the appropriate national and local security agencies, be responsible for the maintenance of security and public safety in the district.” This provision does not allow the
Honorable Mayor to single handedly decide on the security of the Metropolis.
Article 23 Clause 1 recognizes the need for a Justice and Security Sub-committee of the Executive Committee, Our Honorable Mayor failed to consult them before making hasty comments
concerning security.
The Security and Intelligence Agencies Act (Act 526) section 5 paved the way for the establishment of Regional and District Security Councils and section 8 gives power to the Honorable Mayor as the chairman of METSEC in the midst of the metropolitan commanders of
the various security agencies. Under Act 526 section 9, the functions of METSEC is stated as follows:
(a) perform such functions of the Council as the Council may assign to it; and (b) provide early warning to Government of the existence or likelihood of any security threat to the district, to the country or to the Government.
The recent comments and action of the Mayor of Tamale can not be backed by both Act 526 and Act 936. We believe the Honorable Mayor’s action is a breach of procedure since he unilaterally
“banned” all musical shows at the stadium. He said “I have banned all musical concerts at the stadium.”
The Honorable Mayor, Musah Superior has also taken the law into his own hands when he failed to use the appropriate body to control the crowd but rather incited the military against the public
resulting in assaults and seizure of motorbikes. The Public Order Act (Act 491) section 2 states
that,
1) It shall be the responsibility of every police officer to take all such steps as are reasonably
necessary in any public place:
a) to assist in the proper conduct of any special event by directing the routes of such event
to prevent obstruction of pedetrians or vehicular traffic;
b) to disperse crowds at any special event where he has reasonable grounds to believe that
a breach of the peace is likely to occur or if any breach of the peace has occurred or is
occurring in order to prevent violence, restore order and preserve the peace
2) The Police officer in charge of an area of a special event may cause to be closed such streets or parts thereof to pedestrian or vehicular traffic or both and may cause to be erected such barriers as may be necessary to preserve public order.
The above provisions in Act 491 were breached by our Hon. Musah Superior and this raises serious concerns to the good people of the Tamale Metropolis. It is on record and has been the norm for musicians outside the shores of Tamale to always pay
a courtesy call on our traditional rulers especially His Royal Highness the Dakpema. Our Honorable Mayor lead military men to stop Fancy Gadam and Patoranking from paying a courtesy call on His Royal Highness Dakpema and said, “He (Fancy Gadam) was not going to
pay a courtesy call to my discipline chief, no!”. We as a group feels there was no iota of truth in our Mayor’s misleading comment.
Honorable Musah Superior is on record to have referred to one of us (Fancy Gadam) as “Such an irresponsible, lawless young man full of talent but his talent is a waste and a danger to the people of Tamale.” We consider his comments very unfortunate, distasteful and we condemn such comments to the letter. The success of Fancy Gadam does not rely on only him.
Radio presenters, bloggers, TV Presenters, His competitors, event organisers, financiers etc all contributed towards his success.
We also considers the rhetorical questions posed by our Honorable Mayor as being highly suggestive and questions the contributions of the entertainment industry players.
Questions such as “Why would you want to mobilise young innocent people on the streets, just because you want to make profits? You want to use the blood of the people to make money?” questions
the successes and growth of the entertainment industry and gives Tamale negative publicity as seen in the media. We condemn such questions that has the tendency to stimulate negative
thoughts about the growth of our industry. We also wish to register our overwhelming disappointment in the Entertainment Chief of Tamale, Dema Naa Hafiz Mohammed for his gross misconduct and lack of leadership in handling entertainment related issues.
We can confirm that the said accident did not occur during the Fancy Gadam and Patoranking float. We are therefore calling on the Mayor of the Tamale Metropolis, Hon. Musah Superior to:
1) Retract and apologize to the bereaved families, the Entertainment Industry and Fancy
Gadam
2) Appreciate the socio-economic value of the entertainment industry to the people of
Tamale
3) Work within his mandate as the Mayor of Tamale Metropolis and allow other agencies
to conduct their professionally mandated duties
4) Liaise with the National Sports Council to allow musical concerts at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium as soon as possible
Interim Chairman Public Relation Officer
Arnold Mashud (0244933212) Leatrice Naa Kwarley Richardson (0244059203)
Cc:
All Media Houses
All Music camps
Dakpema Naa
Gulkpe Naa
Buglana
Ghana Police Service
Ghana Armed Forces
Mayor, Tamale Metropolis
Director, Tamale Metropolis
Presiding Member, Tamale Metropolis
Regional Minister, Northern Region
Director, National Sports Council, Tamale
Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA)
Dema Naa, Tamale
Dema Naa, Yendi
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