Ofori Amponsah Fakes Own Death?

Young and popular highlife musician Ofori Amponsah has shot himself in the foot?metaphorically. A publicity stunt that he pulled last week to create some controversy around him to coincide with the release of his latest album, has hit a scam.

The June 30 edition of Ebony newspaper carried a banner headline on its front-page screaming: “Ofori Amponsah ‘shoots’ himself dead!”. The accompanying story read: “A couple of years after Tommy Wiredu, an ace musician committed suicide by hanging himself, feelers gathered by Ebony suggest that another budding musician, Ofori Amponsah, has committed suicide”.

News of Ofori Amponsah’s death may have initially caused some anxiety in local showbiz circles as a couple of radio stations picked it up.

Within a couple of hours, however, the truth had been established. Ofori Amponsah had neither shot himself nor died. As usual, the blame was put on offending journalists who did not check their sources.

The truth as ‘Showbiz’ can reveal today, is that Ofori Amponsah and his spin-doctors designed the story, paid for it, and had it placed in the newspaper. Last Monday when this reporter spoke with Franklin Agyeman, a young man who holds himself as Ofori Amponsah’s media liaison person, he did not deny his involvement in the publicity stunt.

He said however, that he did not expect the story to be as definite as that. “Our idea was that the story will talk about Ofori Amponsah’s new album, having shot the one before it to death, but not Ofori himself dying”, Frankin said. The editor of Ebony newspaper, Pat Tetteh, had a different story.

She told this reporter in a telephone interview on Monday that the whole thing was indeed meant as an ‘advert’ to draw attention to Ofori Amponsah. “We do ii for people”, she said. Miss Tetteh said: “We were here when his producer came and said he wanted to do something like that.

We dropped our original front-page and designed a new one. The producer approved of it before we published it”. The editor would not say how much was paid for the publication although she “a colour page is expensive”.

She insisted that the story was treated as an advert as they did not have anything to do it. Appearing on TV3’s Hitz Video programmed on Thursday, Ofori Amponsah demonstrated utter surprise at the publication.

He told Iso Paelay, the host: “I don’t know why they did that”, he said. He said that he did not want to die soon because he still has a lot of music to contribute to Ghana’s music industry.

Speaking on phone last Tuesday, an obviously distraught Ofori Amponsah said that he would have preferred not to talk about the matter. “I can tell you in all honesty that personally did not know that the publication was going to be about my death”.

He said that although he was aware that some publicity was in the offing, he did not for a minute think it was going to be a gimmick about his death. “I’ve been worried that the story took such an angle, comparing my supposed death with that of a colleague musician and all that”.

Ofori Amponsah said he is not that desperate to attract media attention as his songs are still doing very well on the market and he did not need any bizarre controversy to enable him sell.

Young and popular highlife musician Ofori Amponsah has shot himself in the foot?metaphorically. A publicity stunt that he pulled last week to create some controversy around him to coincide with the release of his latest album, has hit a scam.

The June 30 edition of Ebony newspaper carried a banner headline on its front-page screaming: “Ofori Amponsah ‘shoots’ himself dead!”. The accompanying story read: “A couple of years after Tommy Wiredu, an ace musician committed suicide by hanging himself, feelers gathered by Ebony suggest that another budding musician, Ofori Amponsah, has committed suicide”.

News of Ofori Amponsah’s death may have initially caused some anxiety in local showbiz circles as a couple of radio stations picked it up.

Within a couple of hours, however, the truth had been established. Ofori Amponsah had neither shot himself nor died. As usual, the blame was put on offending journalists who did not check their sources.

The truth as ‘Showbiz’ can reveal today, is that Ofori Amponsah and his spin-doctors designed the story, paid for it, and had it placed in the newspaper. Last Monday when this reporter spoke with Franklin Agyeman, a young man who holds himself as Ofori Amponsah’s media liaison person, he did not deny his involvement in the publicity stunt.

He said however, that he did not expect the story to be as definite as that. “Our idea was that the story will talk about Ofori Amponsah’s new album, having shot the one before it to death, but not Ofori himself dying”, Frankin said. The editor of Ebony newspaper, Pat Tetteh, had a different story.

She told this reporter in a telephone interview on Monday that the whole thing was indeed meant as an ‘advert’ to draw attention to Ofori Amponsah. “We do ii for people”, she said. Miss Tetteh said: “We were here when his producer came and said he wanted to do something like that.

We dropped our original front-page and designed a new one. The producer approved of it before we published it”. The editor would not say how much was paid for the publication although she “a colour page is expensive”.

She insisted that the story was treated as an advert as they did not have anything to do it. Appearing on TV3’s Hitz Video programmed on Thursday, Ofori Amponsah demonstrated utter surprise at the publication.

He told Iso Paelay, the host: “I don’t know why they did that”, he said. He said that he did not want to die soon because he still has a lot of music to contribute to Ghana’s music industry.

Speaking on phone last Tuesday, an obviously distraught Ofori Amponsah said that he would have preferred not to talk about the matter. “I can tell you in all honesty that personally did not know that the publication was going to be about my death”.

He said that although he was aware that some publicity was in the offing, he did not for a minute think it was going to be a gimmick about his death. “I’ve been worried that the story took such an angle, comparing my supposed death with that of a colleague musician and all that”.

Ofori Amponsah said he is not that desperate to attract media attention as his songs are still doing very well on the market and he did not need any bizarre controversy to enable him sell.