The Chief Officer of the Ghana Music Right Organisation (GHAMRO), Abraham Adjetey, has disclosed that the Toyota Sequoia bought by Carlos Sakyi during his term as interim board chairman of the collective society, at the cost of Ghc 55,000.00 had a fake registration number plate.

According to the GHAMRO executive, this was revealed when the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) impounded the car after it was retrieved from Carlos Sakyi months after he left office.

He further intimated that there was no document to show that the car belonged to GHAMRO. This prompted an enquiry into the ownership of the car. It was realized that one of the fake registration number plates on the car belonged originally to a Kia Rio according to the investigation conducted by EOCO.

The Chief Officer said, currently the registration issues had been sorted out after the expose and currently now registered under the name of GHAMRO, but was still parked at the office of EOCO awaiting the closure of the matter.

This information was disclosed at a one-day seminar for music right owners and users at the Sky Power Hall in Takoradi, on the 17th of February 2016. The sensitization programme was attended by over 120 right owners and users from the Central and Western Region as part of drawn by GHAMRO for the year 2016.

The event was graced by the Chairman for GHAMRO, Kojo Antwi and his two Deputies, Ahmed Banda and Nana Tuffour and other GHAMRO Board Members, including Zapp Mallet, Diana Hopeson, Bessa Simons and Rex Omar, Chairman of the advisory committee at GHAMRO.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, the General Manager, Jonathan Cudjoe took participants through authors’ rights, collective administration benefits and the need for members to update their records with the organization. He asked some of the users who also participated, particularly the radio stations to honour their obligation and send their program returns to enable GHAMRO effectively pay for the use of music.

On his part, the Board Chairman, Kojo Antwi touched on the reorganization of GHAMRO, explaining the need for the structures that have been developed. He briefly informed participants of his recent education tour to Namibia for a WIPO sponsored course in collective administration and asked members to embrace knowledge in the digital platform to build their capacity in the music profession.

He also encouraged his colleagues to follow the new policies being implemented by the Board.

The next seminar will be held in Kumasi on the 23rd February,2016.