-Faces Misdemeanor Charges Over Fake Shooting
Dancehall artiste, Charles Nii Armah Mensah, alias Shatta Wale, faces up to a year in jail for feigning a shooting on Monday.
He had been on the run since his “expensive joke” and was busted Tuesday night by the Police.
Shatta Wale’s closeness to President Akufo Addo’s Jubilee House could not save him from the Ghana Police Service currently headed by the no-nonsense Inspector General of Police (IGP) Akufo Dampare.
Shatta Wale’s prank, which he has said was staged in reprisal to the Police’ neglect to arrest a self-styled man of God who had prophesied that he would be shot on October 18, 2021, constitutes an offensive cause of fear and panic.
Under the country’s criminal code, the offense is captured under section 208 (1) of the Criminal Code of 1960 (Act 29).
The law states that “any person who publishes or reproduces any statement, rumour or report which is likely to cause fear and alarm to the public or disturb the public peace, knowing or having reason to believe that the statement, rumour or report is false is guilty of a misdemeanor.”
And for a misdemeanor, Mr. Wale faces up to a year in jail or hefty fines or both.
According to him, the expensive prank was in response to the Police’s neglect to arrest Bishop Stephen Akwasi who had prophesied that Wale would be shot on 18th October was what made him lie that he had been shot on 18th October.
“If my life can be threatened and there is no law to take actions on that, then I guess I will do what is right in the eyes of God. This is not the first time I have had these threats in this country now I am going through these emotional traumas alone, my dad has even defended me on the radio on this same issue. Why? Why? Ghana? Why? Yes, my life is in danger, and I am on the run till this country shows me there are laws…,” the October 19 post read.
Wale’s argument has annoyed netizens who are urging the Ghana Police service to hand him the most chastening charges when they eventually lay hands on him.
Mr. Shatta Wale who had been on the run until his arrest on Tuesday evening had bragged that vowed that, until security agencies in the country step up to address such threats, his whereabouts will remain unknown
He claims to have suffered emotional and psychological trauma as a result of the prophecy and may have gone bonkers because of the fake prophesy.
But the Police have been having none of it. They have made it clear that Wale, arguably the most controversial Ghanaian artiste of the last decade, is a wanted criminal.
“The attention of the Police has been drawn to the widely circulated news on the alleged gunshot-attack on one Charles Nii Armah Mensah popularly known as Shatta Wale. On hearing the news, the police have launched an investigation into the matter, including making contacts with some of his close friends and family members, and all of them claim not to have knowledge of his whereabouts or the alleged incident,” a Police statement read.