Following the huge nominations received by Sierra Leonean artistes over the past few weeks from the GLOBAL MUSIC AWARDS AFRICA, many people in have been questioning the authenticity of the award. There have been cries for the breakthrough of Salone music at the international stage, where Sierra Leone music face total rejection and neglect from awards and show organisers across Africa. The recent nomination of Sierra Leonean artistes at the said Global Music Awards Africa, alleged replica of the original GLOBAL MUSIC AWARDS, has sparked some celebrations on social media by many music fans from Sierra Leone. Many believing that the long awaited opportunity for an African breakthrough is here.

The first set of nominations featured two Sierra Leonean rappers, Star Zee and Terror D, later followed by Markmuday, Mos B, Markafish, etc. However, the inconsistency in the release of nominees and the little online presence of the award or the organisers have triggered some critical questions from fans. Many people are asking for official website of an award as big as the said GLOBAL MUSIC AWARDS AFRICA, their physical address in Ghana, the organisers, payment for voting, etc. Few months ago, Sarkodie and other big stars and government officials were scammed in a fake ‘UN AWARD’, which brought total embarrassment to them. Seeing another award emerging from the same Ghana, many people may want to first verify before engaging in it.

Vertex Media has therefore decided to do some investigations in relation to the above questions.

First port of call was to search for their online presence. It appears that their social media channels are a month old, with a handful of followers. There is no official website for the award, save for the www.castvotegh.com website they use for the online payment system. There are other nominees from other parts of Africa who shared their nominations on their various Instagram channels.

We also reached out to a Sierra Leonean blogger, CEO Superlaj, whom they recently unveiled as the Official Blogger of the GMAA awards. Superlaj revealed that he got a message from the organiser, named SAM IKONZ, after he shared the nomination flyer for Star Zee on his various social media sites. According to him, the organiser proposed making him their blogger from Sierra Leone, a request he accepted. Superlaj further stated that he knows little about the awards since they only contacted him 3 days ago. “I cannot say it is a scam, but it is complicating because I have seen nominees with huge followings sharing it on Instagram.”
“I also have concerns about the inconsistency in releasing nominees, I think there should be a cut-off for nomination, but they keep releasing new nominees,” he said.

Through their contact number on their Facebook page, we were able to talk to the organiser, regarding the questions people are asking. He started by telling me that the award is meant to compliment the work of the MTV Base to recognize and appreciate young and established talents in music across Africa. He said the award is young, not fully established, as they are working on their website.

The contact person further informed us that the GMAA is being organised by SMART FOCUS MEDIA in Ghana (with no social presence). When asked for their physical address in Ghana, he initially ignored answering, but later responded when we insisted. He said, “We are in Accra Ghana.” No further details of address.

On why paying to vote for the nominees, the contact person told us that some percentage of the voting proceeds will go to ‘solving poverty in Africa.’ “The next edition will be hosted in another country. When we get sponsors in the next editions, people will no longer pay to vote,” he told us.

A music fan from Sierra Leone also informed us that he was told by a reliable source from Ghana that there’s no such an award. That, the scammers are a team made up of Ghanaians and Nigerians.

More complicating, there’s another person with another contact number named DANIEL ADOFO claiming to be the CEO of the award body, who is a different person from the initial contact person (SAM IKONZ) I spoke to.

Despite there insistence that the award is legit, many Sierra Leoneans have labelled the award as a scam. More details coming up…

By Ibrahim Sorious Samura

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