Driver of late Ghanaian singer Ebony remanded

According to documents by the Johnson Abbey-presided Nkawie Circuit Court in the Ashanti Region, Okoh Pinehas Chartey was remanded in custody on charges of dangerous driving and driving without a licence.

Chartey, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, will reappear in court on 24 March.

On 8 February 2018, a week to her 21st birthday, Ebony was killed instantly in a collision on the Sunyani-Kumasi road while returning from a visit to her mother. Her assistant and friend, Franklina Yaa Nkansah Kuri, and air force lance-corporal Atsu Vondee also lost their lives in the accident.

Narrating the events surrounding Ebony’s death in court, police chief inspector Jonas Newlove Agyei said that at 11.45pm GMT, Chartey, who was driving a Jeep motor vehicle, swerved around a heap of sand in his lane to avoid driving into it, but rammed into a traffic barrier killing all three passengers.

Agyei added that Chartey sustained injuries and was rushed to the Bechem Government Hospital for treatment. Investigations had revealed that Chartey’s driving licence had expired in August 2015, three years before the accident.

Born Priscilla Opoku-Kwarteng, Ebony’s career was characterised by a frequent streak of hits and constant public ridicule for the sexual content in her songs and videos. In April 2018, she posthumously became the first female artist to win the Artist of the Year Award at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards. The singer also won the Album of the Year and Afropop Song of the Year awards, with her manager Bullet picking up the Songwriter of the Year Award for his work on ‘Maame Hw3’, the singer's last single.

On 19 February, Rufftown Records, the label to which Ebony was signed, released ‘John 8:7’ – a collaboration between the singer and Wendy Shay.