Court Injunction Placed On “Loud In GH”

The much talked about highly-anticipated x’mas musical event for hip-life lovers dubbed “Loud In GH” is unlikely to see the light of day.

“Loud In GH” is scheduled to come off tomorrow, Saturday, December 18, in the Dome at the Accra International Conference Center.

But Peacefmonline can confirm that an interim injunction has been placed on the social event which has the tacit support of Accra based private radio station, YFM. This was made known at a press conference held today, December 17th at the offices of the plaintiff, Mr. Jonathan Eze Nwandinobi in Accra.

In the words of Mr. Nwandinobi, who is the CEO of EZ Promotions Limited, organizers of “Loud In GH”(YFM), have illegitimately taken his event without his concern.

According to him, he has been inundated with calls from patrons of his event “Loud In Accra” desiring to know when the event is coming off and how much a ticket will go for, when in actual fact, he has no hand in any such event this Christmas. Further enquiries, he said, revealed that a commercial for an event dubbed “Loud In GH”, was presently rolling on TV, radio and other mediums. Eze said he noticed in the TV ad that, the said show was being organized by YFM and efforts to contact the radio station proved futile. Thus, he was left with no option than to seek the advice of his counsel, Nkrabeah Effah Dartey. He revealed that YFM was issued with a court summons on Wednesday, December 15, 2010 to appear in court on Thursday, December 16.

However, when the case was called by an Accra High Court presided over by His Lordship, Justice C.J. Honyenuga on Thursday as stated in the summons, YFM failed to make an appearance in court. “This is in spite of the fact that they received the summons and accepted to appear in court,” Eze claimed.

Based on this, the court issued an order “that herein the first defendant (YFM)…and second defendant (Registrar General Department), are hereby restrained from organizing the programme dubbed “Loud In GH”.

The court injunction partly reads; “This order shall last 8 days”, implying that the event has being put on hold for the next eight days beginning Thursday December 16, after which the court will sit on the case on the eighth day.

When media men raised concerns that “Loud In Accra” and “Loud In GH” are entirely different, Eze said the real name of his event was registered at the Registrar General Department as “Loud In Accra, Ghana” but he decided to use only “Loud In Accra”.

“But it is not for me determine whether they are two different events, the court will decide that,” he added.

Asked if he is open to any form of negotiation, should YFM (The first defendant) decide to seek an out of court settlement; Eze replied, “Why not! This is not about a fight between YFM and my company, it about rights. I don’t believe in violence I believe in compromise. I am not happy about this but I believe the law should take its course. If they had appeared in court on Wednesday, maybe we would have considered a roundtable discussion and have a compromise but now it is beyond me. It is in the hands of the law.”

He further stated that the entertainment industry in Ghana does not look attractive and is not lucrative because of instances like this. The slogan for the “Loud In GH” event is “The Revolution”, which according to Eze, means organizers are aware of an existing similar event and are only bent on trying to change it.

Meanwhile, a source at YFM disclosed to peacefmonline that Saturday’s event is not directly a YFM brainchild, but rather being put together by Kiki Banson, CEO of EKB Records, and it is simply being partnered by YFM and its sister media houses which include: e-TV Ghana, Happy FM among others.

When Peacefmonline contacted Mr. Banson, he confirmed being the Organiser of the event but denied knowledge of any court summons or court injunction placed on the show. According to him, as far as he is concerned, the show is still on and nothing has changed.

“Everything is coming on as planned,” he added.

He gave the assurance that if indeed there are any issues at all that needed to be dealt with, it will be resolved for the event to come as planned.

“Loud In Accra” was first launched in 2000 and organized by EZ Promotion. It was initiated to celebrate and promote hip-life and urban music and also to serve as a platform for young musicians to perform and expose their talent to the world. The event run consistently for six years and went on a break in 2006 for restructuring.

It was later replicated in Kumasi, Takoradi and other regional capitals. It has featured artistes like: P-Square, D’banj, Tony Tetuila, Idris Abdulkarim from Nigeria, Sway from UK, Reggie Rockstone, VIP, Obrafour, Tic Tac, Akatekyie, Buk-Bak, Bandana, Kwabena Kwabena, Kontihene, X-Doe, Akyeame, Sidney, 2Toff, K. K. Fosu, Samini, Mad Fish and other countless hip-life artistes over the years.

The next “Loud In Accra” musical show is expected next year Easter.

Saturday’s event is the maiden edition of “Loud In GH” and artistes billed to perform include: Becca, Eazzy, Tinny, 5Five, Sarkodie, Trigmatic, Samini, VIP, Richie and a host of others. It is the expectation of many lovers of hip-life and other music genres that the much anticipated “Loud In GH” show will come on as planned.

Keep reading as the story unfolds.