GHAMRO Taskforce Arrested By Police

A Task force of the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO) has been arrested by the Ayi Mensah police command.

This occurred on Sunday, August 26, at Madina a suburb of Accra, whiles they were conducting their duty of inspecting licenses of musical equipment’s used in public for funerals, music concerts and other outdoor events.

Speaking to THE PUBLISHER on Wednesday, Yaw Osborne, Head of the GHAMRO Task Force said his staff who were branded in GHAMRO uniforms and with identity cards were arrested and detained at the Ayi Mensah police station, after an unknown person alerted the police about operations of the task force.

According to him, the taskforce was in the process of explaining the Copyright Law 2005, which mandated GHAMRO to license commercial music equipment used for playing music in public, when the team of police officers, swooped on them.

“I was in Kumasi at the time on another task force operation, when was called by one of the arrested men from the police station about their plight. I then requested to speak with the officer in charge to explain the situation, but the police officer said there was nothing he could do since the commander of the Ayi Mensah station detained them personally and had gone home.’’ He said.

The Organization, according to Yaw Osborne, is in the process of meeting with the Inspector General of Police and has even sent a letter to Police Headquarters awaiting an appointment to be scheduled.

The Chief Operations Officer of GHAMRO, Abraham Adjetey, has visited the Ayi Mensah police station in an attempt to resolve the impasse.

Meanwhile, Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police ACP David Eklu says an officer had been detailed to look into the arrest of the GHAMRO Taskforce.