Ghana’s national security outfit has taken over investigations into circumstances leading to the flouting of the country’s COVID-19 protocols by Jamaican dancehall legend Beenie Man.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has confirmed that Beenie Man tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) last week ahead of the BhimConcert at the Accra International Conference Centre.
However, the “Girls Dem Sugar” hitmaker allegedly violated quarantine rules and performed at the concert with Ghanaian dancehall star Stonebwoy. Beenie Man has since left the West African country.
Speaking to Beatrice Adu on The Big Bulletin, the presidential spokesperson on health Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare said the national security is leading investigations into how the artiste escaped lawful quarantine and subsequently left the country.
“The national security and the security agencies are trying to find out how he got out of the isolation to go and perform. We’re trying to find out what actually happened before he left the country. So that is something that we have asked the national security and other security [agencies] to investigate and tell us,” Nsiah-Asare said.
“At this stage, we have to get the full fact before we can pass any judgement whether they [security agencies] were lenient or not,” he stated.
Disappointing spectacle
Meanwhile, the security analyst Adib Saani has described the security protocol at the airport regarding the matter as “disappointing”.
According to him, “this is very disappointing and a lot of people wouldn’t take us seriously because you condone such illegality flagrantly. It’ll seek to make people start feeling that by virtue of your structure, there are ways and means and so, that might even, in the end, be detrimental to the workings of the security at the airport. And I hope that we just don’t talk about this and let it go as we do to other topics.”
Beenie Man has since disputed claims that he tested positive for COVID-19 when he got to Ghana.
“Update to my fans who are genuinely reaching out. I have no COVID, never caught COVID before, tested NEGATIVE for COVID. Been travelling for the past 6 months COVID-free. Fully vaccinated. I guess someone wants me to have COVID,” he tweeted.
Nicholas Brown
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