Musicians to sue Ama Muna for mismanagement of author’s rights money

By Sylvanus Ezieh Achana'a in Yaounde 

 

Ama Tutu Muna

An assemblage of music artists drawn from several groupings has vowed to sue the state of Cameroon through the ministry of arts and culture for being at the origin of gross mismanagement and misappropriation of money meant for musicians.

The singers are accusing the ministry of arts and culture which is headed by Ama Muna for putting in place a corrupt commission constituting of conmen to share the money meant to musicians but who ended up  swelling their individual private pockets.

The lump of accusations which they are heaping on Muna harps on the fact that the ministry of culture is not the competent institution to share musicians’ money. They argue that musicians’ money is supposed to be managed by musicians themselves through an independent organisation led by musicians.

The agitating singers had summoned a press conference at the Falaise Hotel in Yaounde last Saturday to inform journalists of their imminent decision against the state. They disclosed that the move has been preceded by a petition to the president of the republic and another to the prime minister, informing them of their discontentment against Muna and her commission as well as their planned court action.

The money allocated for author’s rights this year was according to the musicians embezzled by a certain commission dubbed ‘Commission Permanente de Mediation et du Control, CPMC and Commission de Repartition Speciale, roughly translated as permanent mediation and control commission and special sharing commission.

The letters to the president of the republic and the prime minister have been fed with adequate information and evidence unveiling the misappropriation of the author’s rights money. They have described the attitude of the culture ministry with its swindling commissions as killer banes of the progress of musicians in Cameroon. 

They are acting under a new umbrella association led by a wealthy artiste, Raimon Tchengang and Adeline Mbenkum as first vice president. The new association also has membership of prominent singers like Ottou Marcellin, Ndedi Eyango and Folly Dirane who is one of the spokespersons of the association.