Various people including “Opanin” have been asking GhanaCelebrities.Com what caused the 2 year ban imposed on Ghanaian veteran Actors Kofi Adjorlolo and Ekow Smith Asante by the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG).
To ascertain what led to the ban of the above mentioned actors, I made a phone call a few minutes ago to Socrate Sarfo, the PR of FIPAG for clarifications on the issue.
According Socrate Sarfo and as most people may know, under ECOWAS which seeks to achieve free movement of people and trade between its member states, any national of ECOWAS can visit Ghana for a limited time to engage in trading enterprises.
However, as part of ECOWAS regulations, you cannot work in a member state without work permit. Most of us living abroad maybe familiar with work permit rules and its subsequent consequences.
Socrate Sarfo in our phone conversation explained that, late last year, FIPAG was informed that, some Nigerians were working (shooting a movie) at a location in Ghana without the necessary documentations to work (work permit, etc).
Since FIPAG is largely in charge of the production of movies within Ghana, they have a monitoring team to ensure that foreigners who come to work in the movie industry do not take the laws for granted.
Based on their tip-off, they sent their monitoring team to the specified location and found Kofi Adjorlolo in the midst of various Nigerians who were indeed working without permits.
At the location, they asked to speak to the Producer and Ekow Smith Asante phoned as the man in charge of the production (Producer).
Ekow Smith Asante was then advised by FIPAG to make the necessary arrangements to acquire work permits for his Nigerian crew. He was asked to meet FIPAG leaders for a discussion on the issue.
After Ekow Smith Asante confirmed the date and time of the meeting, FIPAG asked Kofi Adjorlolo to come with Ekow Smith as a witness to the proceedings and to further discuss with Kofi Adjorlolo an alleged unfair treatment he suffered in the hands of a movie producer.
On the day of the meeting, FIPAG waited for several hours and the two gentlemen failed to show up, rather, they continued shooting with the Nigerians who still had no work permits.
FIPAG had no option than to impose the 24months ban on Ekow Smith Asante for breaching the very fundamental laws of working in Ghana and in the movie industry.
Where does Kofi Adjorlolo come in? After Kofi Adjorlolo heard of the ban imposed on his friend, he went berserk, threw out several insults on radio and other places, saying among other things that, FIPAG has no right to ban anyone and they dare bring their “nonsense” on him.
As a senior citizen in the movie industry, this was uncalled for and very disrespecting to FIPAG. As a result of his disregard for the Association and its rules, he was also handed down a 2 year ban.
After my chit chat with Socrate Sarfo, I asked him if he is coming out with any movie soon. He quickly replied; it will be out soon. What is the title I asked and he answer, “What Sex Can Do”.
He promised to let us have the trailer as soon as it is out of the studio, so keep checking GhanaCelebrities.Com. It will be up here any day from today…
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