Ghana: Interim directorate to lead GHAMRO as court nullifies CMO’s elections

According to court papers dated 19 July 2022 and seen by Music In Africa, by going ahead with the elections, GHAMRO’s management ignored an interlocutory injunction granted by the court to aggrieved GHAMRO members prior to the elections. For ignoring the injunction, GHAMRO has also been given a fine of 2 000 cedi ($240).

Following the organisation’s annual general meeting in 2020, an independent election committee comprising four GHAMRO members and two representatives from the office of the attorney-general was instated to oversee the election of a new board in line with the collective management organisation’s (CMO’s) constitution. 

Omar, who was re-elected as GHAMRO chairperson alongside six other board members in May, said the committee was neither able to carry out nor justify why it failed to hold elections for a new board more than 100 days after it was elected. It is for this reason the committee was dissolved and an interim team appointed to oversee the elections, he said.

A new election committee, installed by the interim board on 26 April and comprising Eric Afriyie, Haruna Sungumo Abdul-Aziz, Seth Kwaku Amponsah, Kwabena Donkor Jethro and chairperson Augustina Addison was mandated with providing a new board for the CMO by the 20 May 2022 deadline.

“We wanted to do the election within 30 days, but just as we were about to do the election, this old election committee brought an injunction to stop the election,” Omar said.

In November last year, GHAMRO members – including then election committee members Nana Boahene, Rev Mensah Bonsu, Kingsley Sarpong and Gloria Dzifa Ashinyo – sought an injunction regarding the May elections, claiming that the appointment of an interim board at an emergency general meeting in April 2021 contravened the organisation’s constitution. They also sought the reinstatement of the election committee that was set aside by the interim board, in order to continue their mandate.

The defendants in that lawsuit included GHAMRO, Abraham Nuetey Adjatey, Augustina Addison, Aziz Haruna, Kwabena Donkor, Eric Afriyie and Seth Kwaku Amponsah.

A five-member interim directorate will now lead the CMO. This is according to GHAMRO CEO Abraham Adjatey, who assembled the provisional directorate composed of Augustina Addison, Abraham Kofi Boakye, Diana Hopeson, Ahmed Banda and Rex Omar – the same cast that led the organisation prior to the elections. They will run the affairs of GHAMRO until the next court date on 11 August.

“We are a law-abiding institution and must follow the law,” Adjatey said during the announcement of the interim directorate last week. “So on that note, I have immediately informed the board, and I am informing you, that the board has been set aside. In tandem with the corporate governance process, management has taken over the running of the society. It also means that the interim directors under whose watch the election was held, will take over the running of the society until we go to court on 11 August 2022.”