For the first time, Ugandan recording artiste Bebe Cool has spoken about the arrest of Nigerian musicians, Tems and Omah Lay in Uganda during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
At the time, Tems and Omah Lay were arrested and charged to court and subsequently detained in prison in Uganda for making an appearance at a concert held in the country at Speke Resort, Kampala, on December 12, 2020, despite COVID-19 social distancing regulations.
Tems alleged via her X handle back then that Babe Cool was behind their arrest after they were granted bail after spending two days in prison.
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Addressing the allegations in a recent episode of the Afrobeats podcast, Bebe Cool denied being behind the arrest.
He said, “I didn’t get Tems and Omah Lay arrested in Uganda. It’s very difficult when the internet pick on story in a direction.
“I was sleeping around 3am when a friend called me to inform that the Nigerian artists had been arrested. I got the details from him and then I started making my calls.
“So, by 6 O’clock in the morning, I went to the police station and spoke to the DPC, the head of the police station and he confirmed that they had arrested Tems and Omah Lay. I told him, ‘Why did you go to arrest the artistes because the artistes are not in charge of the show. The president has given an allowance of 200 people but the artistes don’t control the number of attendees. So why arrest them?’
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“The DPC told me that I should go and speak with his superior. But as I was speaking to the DPC, the show promoter saw me and started saying, “That’s the guy. That guy is the reason that you are in prison. The promoter was accusing me of facilitating the arrests because two weeks before that event when they started advertising it, the artistes in Uganda, we were totally mad at the government because we’ve been shut down from performing for over a year and half.
“Not even I, who is pro-government could even perform for even a 100 people. So, everyone was tweeting. We as artistes decided to tweet to the government so that they can allow us to do small gigs. We were saying if you allow Tems and Omah Lay to perform in Uganda, then allow us to do gigs, too. So because it’s Babe Cool, my tweets went viral.
“When I went to the police station, I only put in words for the two artistes who were arrested. The show promoter was also arrested but I didn’t appeal for her release which didn’t sit down well with her. I left the police station to the head office to meet with the big boss and as I was waiting, I saw on my phone that the Nigerian artists had been arraigned before the court. I made a call to the DPC and said, ‘I just left, I’m waiting for the big man to come so that we can discuss and you went behind me and took the artistes to court?’ He explained to me that when I left the promoter lady made a mess and was bragging about how her mother had connections to the president.”
Bebe Cool said he was the one who worked tirelessly to secure the release of Tems and Omah and not Nigeria’s ambassador as reported in some sections of the media.
