Highlife musician, Kwaisey Pee has called on fellow Ghanaian musicians to boycott the Ghana Music Awards, if Charter House continues with its decision to sue Shatta Wale.
Charter House, organizers of the Ghana Music Awards has commenced a legal action against the 2014 Ghana Music Awards Artist of The Year winner, claiming damages up to the tune of 10 million Ghana cedis for defamation.
Kwaisey Pee said, “I feel that all Ghanaian musicians should rally behind our own and boycott next year’s Ghana Music Awards if Charter House continues with their suit against Shatta Wale. I feel Shatta Wale was fighting a good cause for artists because Charter House has cheated artists for far too long. I know Shatta Wale could have done it in a different way than the way he chose to voice his opinions. And although Charter House have their rights to take the case to court, I think they went too far. This is not the first time that somebody has been insulted in Ghana. Past presidents of Ghana and even the current president have been insulted several times in the media.”
Kwaisey Pee, thus called on musicians, regardless of their personal issues with Shatta Wale to support him during the period. Meanwhile an Accra Fast Track High Court on Monday October 20 sat to hear the case involving Charter House and its CEO Mr. Iyiola Ayoade and Shatta Wale real name Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jnr.
The two plaintiffs, Charterhouse and its CEO want the court to declare that the musician defamed them in the series of videos. They are asking for “an unqualified apology and retraction of each of the four separate videos with the approval by the plaintiffs prior to the recording and uploading” to his Facebook page and to remain on his page for one month within a week of the judgment.
Again the plaintiffs want the court to compel Shatta Wale to send the four videos in which he renders apologies to the plaintiffs to “all media houses and online publications that have aired the defamatory videos complained of and ensure that same and/or published at his own expense” within a week of the judgment.
The plaintiffs are also seeking for an “order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendant, his agents, manager(s), privies and assigns or any person through him and howsoever described from making and/or repeating the defamatory statements or similar statements in the nature of the ones complained in the video recordings.”
When the court sat on the case on Monday, it lasted barely 45 minutes with the two plaintiffs winning an interlocutory injunction against Shatta Wale. This means Shatta Wale and all his associates dare not release anything against Charterhouse or anybody affiliated with Charterhouse be it in writing in social media, in music, Radio, TV, video or through any other form of communication or publication.
In the main case of defamation, Shatta Wale’s lawyer pleaded with the court extensively for an out of court settlement and asked for one month within which they believe by then the case might have been settled amicably between the two parties, but Lawyer for Charterhouse and Mr. Ayoade, Lawyer Egbert Faibelle said one month was too long for a possible out of court settlement so the court agreed to a two-week time-table after which if both parties are not able to settle the case out of court, the case would be recalled.
The case has therefore been adjourned to Monday November 3, 2014.
