The founder of the Ghana Movie Awards, Phred Nuamah, has denied ever manipulating the awards and says he does not even know Ricky Anokye, the man who made the allegation on Pluzz FM last Sunday.

While doing a critique of last Saturday’s 4Syte Awards, and a wider issue of poorly-organised awards ceremonies in the creative industry, Anokye picked on the Ghana Movie Awards as a case in point and stated that as part of the production team in 2011, he was privy to an occasion when Nuamah handpicked award winners from his hotel room and communicated his choices via telephone to the organising team at the event venue.

“We were producing the show at the time. We were backstage and had to call Phred and he will say which award goes to whom, we then wrote it and put it in an envelope for it to be announced on stage,” claimed Ricky Anokye, who at that time was a Channel Manager for Adom TV, Nhyira TV and Hitz TV on Multi TV which was the official producers of the 2011 edition of the Ghana Movie Awards.

While conceding that Multi TV produced the 2011 awards, Fred Nuamah, however, in a strong denial, told Showbiz on Monday he never at any time handpicked winners and further discredited Anokye’s claims of deciding on the winners of the 2011 awards.

Shooting down claims by Anokye, currently Chief Operating Officer of Care TV, Phred explained that with that particular edition, the jury headed by veteran actor, David Dontoh, had the list of winners but was running late due to heavy traffic.

“The TV station kept calling me because they wanted to go on air and the jury had the list. So I had to take the list from David and call out the names so the show could begin. I was with David Dontoh at the time so there was no way I could manipulate the results.

“We, however, made it to the show later and handed over the list to them so I do not know why he would accuse me of doing such a thing.

“Moreover, I don’t even know that guy (Ricky Anokye) who is making all those false claims. The jury had finished their job, they were just producers. So what he is saying is news to me.”

Nonetheless, Ricky has stuck to his guns and seems unmoved by Phred Nuamah’s denial of him.

“That is not the issue, he, not knowing me is neither here nor there. What he should address is whether what I am saying is true or not,” he told Showbiz in response

Explaining his personal role in the awards, Phred Nuamah said as founder of the event, he was only given the prerogative to decide who should win the Founder’s Merit Award.

Touching on this year’s awards, Nuamah said this year’s winners will be determined by an Acadamy and the Founder’s Merit Award has been taken over by sponsors, Kia and Peugeot who will give 20 percent discount on their cars to all winners who would want to buy from them.

source: graphic.com.gh