Empress Gifty has waded into the long-standing conversation about sabotage in Ghana’s creative arts industry, sharing her own painful experience that she says still lingers in memory.
Speaking in a live TikTok session, she recounted what happened during her first trip to the United Kingdom, a journey that ended in deportation after a colleague, who had invited her, allegedly abandoned her upon arrival. She chose not to reveal the person’s identity.
“When I got to the airport, the immigration officers asked me who I was going to visit, and I mentioned the name. They then asked me if I had called the person before getting to the airport, and I told them yes. So they asked me to call her, but after calling her several times, the person refused to pick up my calls.
“The immigration officers started calling her from 6 AM to 4 PM, but my friend didn’t pick up my calls. They then took me to a room where there were a lot of cameras and everyone was even looking at me,” she said.
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Empress Gifty revealed that her ex-husband sought help from then-Ghanaian Foreign Minister Hannah Tetteh, but even high-level intervention failed to change the situation.
“I called my ex-husband, and he called the then foreign minister, who was Hannah Tetteh. She even called the immigration officers to allow me to stay in my hotel room. But they refused. They were like, until the girl picks up the calls, they were not going to allow me to enter the UK,” she recalled.
The popular gospel singer said she was sent back to Ghana the same day, her two-year visa cancelled in less than a week. She added that her most recent trip to the UK was a deliberate move to silence critics who ridiculed her over the episode.
“When their efforts were not proving fruitful, my husband called and asked them to return me to Ghana. The immigration officer spoiled my two-year visa that I had gotten within a week.”
Watch her statement here.
