Shatta Wale still in custody, Police dispels rumours

• The artiste had been arrested for pulling an expensive prank on the public on October 18

• The police say the news is false

“Shatta Wale is still in our custody,” the Ghana Police Service has stated, contrary to an earlier media report that he had been granted bail.

DSP Alexander Obeng, the acting Public Affairs Director of the Ghana Police Service, told GhanaWeb in an interview that the rumours are not true.

“So far as I am concerned, we’re still holding Shatta Wale in custody and we are investigating the incident,” he said.

Shatta Wale was arrested by the police after he admitted that, an earlier report that he had been shot was only a prank to mock a certain prophet who had prophesied that he would be shot to death on October 18, this year.

Prophet Stephen Akwasi, the founder and leader of New Life Kingdom Chapel International, had said that just like South African reggae artiste, Lucky Dube, who was also shot and killed on October 18, 2007, the Ghanaian dancehall artiste will also be killed and called for people to pray for him.

In response, Shatta Wale said that he pulled the prank because his life was threatened.

Meanwhile, a private legal practitioner, Maurice Ampaw, has asked that this incident is used as a test case to test the security of this country.

According to him, much as the actions of the artiste amounts to charges of fake news, which is contrary to the Electronic Publication Act, and which prohibits the spreading of false news, there should be a consideration of the intent behind this move.

“I have also heard Shatta’s side of the issue, stressing that the police and the public were quiet when he was threatened by a prophet whose prophecy said that on the 18th of October, he will be shot. Therefore, everybody sat down when he was going through the trauma and the emotional stress.

“We should use this Shatta Wale issues as a test case as to whether you make prophecies that people understand or not, you express your religious beliefs and practices that is your right, with don’t have a problem, but the right of every Ghanaian is subjected to the right of others, per our constitution. So, if out of your prophecy, somebody feels threatened, which is a reasonable threat to him, that you’ve given a specific date that he will be shot. This is a serious threat to the person.

“Therefore, we should start interrogating people committing crime in the name of prophecy, in the name of God, in the name of spirituality. And if we don’t, people will commit crime in the name of prophecy,” he urged.