Lydia Forson issues statement on hotel controversy

Actress Lydia Forson has apologised to fans in Kumasi who bought tickets to meet her last week at Ladies Night event at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) but couldn’t meet her.

The outspoken actress explained that she did all she could to show up but was frustrated by the unprofessional behaviour of Regime Eventz, organisers of the programme.

“It’s unfair that you didn’t get your money’s worth because of some unprofessional individuals,” Lydia said in a statement issued on her website.

Below Is The Full Statement:

So I’ve read about being detained at a hotel with Joey B. Firstly I’d like to apologise to my fans who bought tickets to see me on that night in Kumasi. It’s unfair that you didn’t get your money’s worth because of some unprofessional individuals.

You need to understand that we had a contract to make an appearance at the Ladies Night event, of which we fulfilled our end of the bargain.

Prior to the event, the organisers had made a part payment to us as per agreement, and were to complete payment on the night of the event.

We arrived in Kumasi on the day with the agent who had booked us, because this was the first time he was dealing with these boys and didn’t trust them enough to send us off alone.

Right from the airport we knew something was off when the organisers weren’t there to pick us up.

Our agent then hired a car to take us to the hotel. They later showed up at the hotel to say their car had an accident (which I doubt was true).

I told the agent I didn’t have a good feeling about this, especially since these boys didn’t seem to have an itinerary for us.

Usually before a show we have radio interviews, etc just to assure people we are in town. However, on this occasion nothing was arranged. I asked several times exactly what the plan was and these people didn’t seem to have a clue as to what they were doing.

At a point I even asked if this was their first event since it was beginning to look like they were totally unprepared for the show.

At 6pm we passed by the venue after the launch and they tried to get us to go round some of the halls to let people know we were there. Joey and I both refused especially since it was nearly time for the event and we needed to rest. It also seemed a little desperate and a last minute attempt to get more people to come.

This I’m sure angered the promoters; however it was never in our contract to do anything of that nature.

We went back to the hotel and waited to be picked up for the event.

By 11pm I called the agent to find out what was going on, so he went to the venue and discovered that people didn’t really turn up. The rain also probably made it worse as it rained all through that night.

They decided to push for the after party which we were also booked to be at.

And again as per agreement they were to pay us the remaining 30% before we entered. They pleaded that we do it and get paid after; however that wasn’t the agreement we signed.

They asked us to go to the hotel and they would sort it out; that was the last we heard from them.

The next day all attempts to reach them through the agent proved impossible. The agent arranged for our flight back to Accra and asked us to check out.

However as we did, the hotel management told us the organisers hadn’t paid for the rooms.

Our agent insisted that they were not booked under our names and for that we shouldn’t be held liable for non payment.

Note that our refusal to pay had nothing to with whether we could afford to or not, it was purely on principle. We refused to allow these boys take even more advantage of us than they already had.

This started a verbal confrontation between the agent and management of the staff. But in the end thanks to our agent’s persistence we were able to leave the hotel and head to the airport.

What people need to understand is, in the end although what we do may look like a lot of fun from the outside, it is business and should be treated as such.

These boys proved to be unprofessional and inexperienced people. They organised a show without proper planning or adequate publicity. Even artist way bigger than me have had shows flop simply because people won’t come for an event they don’t know about.

Instead of owning up to their mistake they decided to blame us and try to embarrass us in the process.

Unfortunately for them it didn’t work, because the agent ensured that we returned to Accra safely especially since he booked us in the first place.

This isn’t the first someone has tried to pull a fast one on me, and will probably not be the last.

So for the record if you ever come across the boys who run REGIME EVENTZ know that they are unscrupulous boys looking for fast money. Until they render an apology and settle all other arrears I will never let them off the hook.

But in the end, “Still Like Air I Rise”.