Commissioner Of Police (COP), Kofi Boakye has disclosed that he is astounded by some demands some creative industry players made at the meeting between creative industry players and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare.
The meeting held at the Police Headquarters in Accra had in attendance some senior police officers, including the Director-General in charge of Legal and Prosecution for the Ghana Police Service, COP Kofi Boakye.
According to some sources, at the meeting, some creative industry players complained about mishandling and inappropriate treatment from the police personnel. According to the industry players, they should have some privileges befitting their status as celebrities in the country. But COP Kofi Boakye pointed out that none was above the law.
COP Kofi Boakye in response to their demands said: “I want to say that the sense of entitlement of celebrities is becoming overwhelming. And I just don’t get it. Some of the things that you do are disgusting, truth be told. If we cannot arrest pickpockets, we cannot arrest armed robbers. No one is above the law. When you fault it, and the law has to deal with you, we will. So that it will deter others.
“If you want privileges, what privileges do you want? That you can pull a weapon anytime, and nothing would be done to you? No, that is not possible. We cannot do that”.
Kofi Boakye
COP Kofi Boakye also emphasized that there is the need to specify who a celebrity is and who deserves that title.
“Who is a celebrity? What is the operational definition of the word celebrity? I think we should get that because I am confused. We are confused. Is it that when you appear in one film, or you do one song, you qualify to be called a celebrity or what? And you see, because we are confused, we do not know what you want”.
Kofi Boakye
COP Kofi Boakye also indicated that there will be another gathering where cyber law and corporate law would be discussed so that certain things would be avoided.
“We will have to talk about these things so that we will all be on the same page because if you lie to damage the reputation of someone, the law has to take its course”.
Kofi Boakye
The IGP called for a meeting with the creative industry players for discussions on how to enhance collaboration and cooperation. Quite a number of industry players including Shatta Wale, Kuami Eugene, KiDi, Stonebwoy, A Plus, Bulldog, Samini, Socrate Safo, Afia Schwarzenegger, Rex Omar, and more were in attendance.
It can be recalled that during the meeting an unforeseen situation happened. COP Kofi Boakye had to drag Shatta Wale out of the meeting because he took his phone out to record the meeting proceedings. Shatta Wale later humbly apologized for his actions since he wasn’t aware that there was a warning issued out to industry players not to record the meeting.
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