BNI overstepped its boundaries in seizing “Atta Mortuary Man” movies – Ken Addy

A member of the Ghana Cinematography and Exhibition Board of Control, Ken Addy has said the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) has overstepped its boundaries in seizing two yet-to-be-released movies, “Oh Uncle Atta” and “Atta Mortuary Man.”

Some men, said to be personnel from the BNI over the weekend seized about 13,000 copies of the two movies “Atta Mortuary Man” and “Oh Uncle Atta,” and arrested the distributor, George Walker Darko without any reasons although the titles make very clear references to President Mills.

According to Mr. Darko, who spoke to Joy FM, the men only stated that the movies could not be released to the public.

But speaking on Dwaso Nsem on Adom FM Monday, Ken Addy said the BNI went to the extremes in its action.

He said the least the national security officials could have done was to contact members of the Cinematography Board to find out whether the movies contained anything that is offensive to President Mills or they could have even previewed the movie themselves before seizing them.

He stressed that the members of the Board, which has oversight responsibility of examining the contents of movies before they are released, would not have passed the movies if they had anything to do with President Mills.  

Also speaking on Dwaso Nsem, the producer and director of the movies, Mr. Kofi Asamoah said the two movies have nothing to do with President Mills and does not even have political undertones so he could not understand why they were seized.

He said although they tried explaining to the BNI operatives that their movies were just comedic, their pleas fell on deaf ears as all they said was that they were operating on orders from above.

Explaining the synopsis of the movies, Kofi Asamoah said “Atta Mortuary Man” is purely a comedy in which the lead actor-Agya Koo, playing the role as Atta, is a susu collector who after fraudulently embezzling the amounts he had collected from the residents decided to ran away from the vicinity.Finding himself in a new locality, he had to pursue other jobs for a living and settled on being a mortuary man.

Mr. Asamoah also disclosed that State Broadcaster, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) had refused to air promotional copies of the movies explaining that he was directed to change the title of the movie or they would not air the advert because the titles have links with President Mills.

Deputy Minister of Information, Baba Jamal denied that the BNI seized the movie because of the titles.He told Adom News that the producer of the movie did not follow the rules and regulations of movie production.

He said there are three levels of censorship a movie goes through which includes posters and promotional copies but he stated that they did not see the posters and the promotional copies hence the decision to seize the ‘controversial’ copies.

Baba Jamal disclose that if Kofi Asamoah goes back to follow the rules and regulations of censorship they may reconsider and allow the movie to be released onto the market.

Meanwhile one of the lead actors in “Atta Mortuary Man”, Rose Mensah aka Akua Ataa Kyeiwaa has described the action of the BNI officials as regrettable.

She said it is unfortunate for anybody to think that the movie was targeted at President Mills. She explained that if there had been any political links she would not have acted in the movie.

She said the movie is a far cry from the President and is rather about the plight of a man called Atta which is played by Kofi Adu aka Agya Koo.

Meanwhile, the man whose name is believed to have inspired the title of the movie, Atta Mortuary man, (who became popular after being used in a story by former President Rawlings during a speech), says he will sue the producers of the movie for using his name to make movies without any form of financial assistance.

The 81-year-old explained he will not allow his name to be used for selfish interest without his consent.

Story: Samuel Mantey/ Adom FM/Ghana