Charter House, the organizers of the Ghana Music Awards have apologized for the unpardonable lapses in security at the just ended awards ceremony. Many disgruntled patrons of the GMAs have complained about queuing outside the gates of the Accra Conference Centre for a long time before being allowed to enter the compound for further security checks. As a result of frustration, some patrons tried to force their way into the main gates and ended up at the mercy of security guards who whipped them with canes and at some point unleashed dogs onto them. There are some reports about dog bites and assault/heckling on patrons including some nominees and other invited guests.
According to Pa-john Dadson, Communications consultant for the Ghana Music Awards and Juno Abena Turkson, Media/PR executive for Charter House, the poor security treatment is deeply regretted and unintentional. According to them, Charter House put up all the structures to make sure patrons had a smooth entry into the venue but due to the overwhelming turn out and sometimes, unruly behavior of some of the patrons, the security personnel unfortunately took matters in their own hand at certain points. They explained that patrons at the gate wouldn’t line up properly for checking of tickets and that some people at the gate had no tickets for entry to even begin with.
The officials admitted that the frenzy at the gates were partially due to the promo adverts that said that the public should buy their tickets at Koala at 50GhC or pay more at the gate. This commercial caused too much anxiety and coupled with the shortage of tickets, everyone who had a ticket wanted to get in early to have a good seat and avoid having to watch the whole show standing.
They also apologized for the poor sound quality at the latter part of the night explaining that there was a power trip that damaged some of the sound equipment. They assured that all these setbacks will be reviewed by the organization and improved upon subsequently.
