Bebe Cool, a Ugandan artist, has denied assisting the arrest of Nigerian musicians Tems and Omah Lay in the country in 2020.
Tems and Omah Lay were arrested, charged, and then imprisoned in Uganda for appearing at a concert at Speke Resort in Kampala on December 12, 2020, despite COVID-19 social distancing restrictions.
Tems claimed on her X account at the time that Babe Cool was responsible for their detention after they were given bail after two days in prison.
In a recent episode of the Afrobeats podcast, Babe Cool denied being responsible for the arrest.
He stated, “I did not get Tems and Omah Lay detained in Uganda. It’s extremely tough when the internet takes a story in a specific way.
“I was asleep at 3 a.m. when a buddy called to tell me that the Nigerian artists had been arrested. I obtained the details from him and then started making calls.
“So, around 6 a.m., I went to the police station and met with the DPC, the station’s leader, who confirmed that Tems and Omah Lay had been arrested. I asked him, “Why did you go to arrest the artists because they 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?’
“The DPC advised me to go meet with his superior. But when I was conversing with the DPC, the show promoter noticed me and began saying, “That’s the guy.” That individual is the reason you are in prison. The promoter accused me of helping the arrests because, two weeks before the concert, when they began advertising it, the artistes in Uganda were furious with the government since we had been banned from playing for more than a year and a half.
“Not even I, who support the administration, could perform for 100 people. So, everyone started tweeting. We, as artists, decided to Twitter the government to request permission to perform tiny shows.
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.”
Babe 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.
