Kojo Antwi Wins…Becomes First Elected GHAMRO Boss

Kojo Antwi

Music maestro Kojo Antwi emerged the first elected Management Board Chairman for the Ghana Music Rights Organisation (GHAMRO) at Wednesday’s polls.

“I am humbled by the confidence entrusted in me by the music right owners in Ghana. I want to assure all Ghanaians and the international copyright community that from today, they will see a different GHAMRO professionally run and focused on producing results for the right owners. I am happy with the quality of persons on the board and we are ready to go,” Kojo Antwi noted in his speech at his swearing in.

GHAMRO is Ghana’s only government approved copyright organisation for music right owners in the country responsible for collecting and distributing royalties to music right owners.

Wednesday’s polls took place simultaneously in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale under the supervision of the Electoral Commission of Ghana. When the results were collated and announced,  positions for the new GHAMRO Board had been won by Nana Tuffour, Ahmed Banda (Bandex), Diana Hopeson, Mary Ghamsah, Bessa Simon, Zapp Mallet, Augustina Addison, Nana Kwaku Duah (Tic Tac), Benjamin Mensah, Manu Francis, Amponsah Seth and Reverend Francis Boahene.

However, Randy Noonoo, who contested for deputy chairmanship but lost to James Nana Tuffour, has alleged the polls were rigged and claims he has evidence that non members of the organisation were allowed to vote.

But according to Enock Agyepong, a member of the Board, it was impossible for non members to have voted in an Electoral Commission (EC) organised elections.

“In my opinion, I think he is acting as a bad loser. He is the only person complaining now. When Randy won in Accra, he was happy but he forgot Nana Tuffour’s strong hold was in Kumasi so I don’t know why all of a sudden he is complaining about Kumasi and Tamale. It is the EC that held the elections and we only supervised. Is he saying that the EC was the one who rigged the elections,” Mr Agyepong quizzed.

Results from the elections supervised by the Electoral Commission (EC) saw Randy amassing 114 votes in Accra, 34 votes in Tamale and 48 votes in Kumasi, totalling 196 votes in all. Nana Tuffour, on the other hand, got 96 votes in Accra, 147 votes in Tamale and 146 votes in Kumasi, which added up to 389 votes in all.

“If he says we had people who were not right owners voting, that is absolutely not true because there was a register provided for EC and that is what they used to conduct the elections. So I don’t know what he is talking about. It is not fair to the EC and then the interim board. He is just a bad loser that is all,” he told NEWS-ONE.

Enock Agyepong observed that the elections had a massive turnout in all regions, which in his opinion made the elections very successful.

“The GHAMRO election was very successful. For me, I was quite surprised because I didn’t expect such massive turnout. What I saw was very encouraging,” he added.