The firm that is behind the arrest of Black Sherif, Cruise People Limited, has released a statement on the arrest of the reigning Vodafone Ghana Music Awards Artiste of the Year.
The statement says management of the firm engaged Black Sherrif known in real life as Mohammed Sharrif to perform at the second edition of its musical cruise onboard a cruise ship dubbed Afro Cruise Jam, on August 19, 2023, in Greece.
Despite everything, the statement says he failed to honour his part of the deal which resulted in their loss. They, however, reached out to the musician and his management several times but to no avail.
The statement further indicate that their lawyers even wrote to the management of Black Sherif requesting for reason for the action as far back in May but neither the artiste nor his management have been able to respond to them till date.
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The development informed their decision to report the issue to the police to take drastic actions against the ‘Soja’ hitmaker.
Find below the full statement from Cruise People Limited
20 July, 2023
PRESS RELEASE
Cruise People Limited, (Your Cruise People) engaged the management of Mohammed Sharrif (Black Sherrif) for the artiste to perform at the second edition of our musical cruise onboard a cruise ship, themed Afro Cruise Jam, on August 19, 2023 in Greece.
The first edition, which was held last year, featured Grammy awards winner – Gramps Morgan of Morgan Heritage fame and Abrantie Amakye Dede and his Apollo High-Kings band.
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Cruise People Ltd. was charged Forty Thousand United States Dollars ($40,000); and it was further agreed between Cruise People Ltd., the artiste and his booking agents (United Talent Agency a.k.a Echo Location Talent Agency) that an initial payment of Twenty Thousand United States Dollars ($20,000) shall be made to him to firm up the agreement and in return he will record a short video confirming his participation and availability for the said show on the cruise ship at the agreed dates.
We proceeded to pay the initial deposit via a bank transfer to his London account as agreed and the artiste acknowledged receipt of payment. Following a series of email correspondences between Cruise People Ltd. and artist, we reiterated to him that we needed the video recording of him confirming his performance on the cruise ship on the dates agreed upon and went further to notify him that we had arranged a media engagement with Multimedia Group on Friday 19th May, 2023 at 3pm for which the said video clip announcing his performance and availability for the event will be broadcasted to elicit enhanced marketability of the event.
He unequivocally represented to us that the video clip will be ready even before the broadcast date duly communicated to him and hence we went ahead and paid Multimedia for the outside media broadcast.
Given the firm assurances from him and his outfit that the video clip will be ready and available for the media broadcast, we went further to make deposits and secured cabins on the cruise ship and other incidental arrangements, in anticipation of enhanced interests and patronage of purchase of cruise tickets, that the media broadcast shall generate.
Regrettably, he failed, refused and/or neglected to make the video clip available to us to be broadcasted on the 19th May, 2023 at 3 pm, the time scheduled. The media encounter with Multimedia Group was held without the input of the video clip from him announcing his performance at the event, contrary to earlier agreement between us.
As a result of his failure to confirm his participation, the cabins on the cruise ship which were paid for and reserved at a discounted price had to be cancelled and deposits lost since the expected interests and patronage of the event could not be guaranteed.
He deliberately failed to perform his part of the agreement despite several reminders sent to his agents.
Our company’s lawyers wrote and informed him, his management and booking agents on May 23, 2023 about the breach of agreement and till date, they haven’t replied.
At this point, we had no option than to report his fraudulent actions to the police and proceed to court for redress and seek reliefs.
Signed:
DANIEL VANDERPUYE
CEO
