We Are Sorry, Promoters Beg Banky W

Royal Entertainment, promoters of the botched North American tour of EME crew including Banky W, Wizkid and Skales, has tendered a public apology over its initial allegations about the cancellation of the artistes’ concerts in Canada and California.

The promoters, in a public statement on their Facebook page apologised to Banky W and the EME crew. They stated that Banky W and the EME crew should not be held responsible for the cancellation of the shows as reasons for the sad development are genuine and unavoidable.

“We would like to address the allegations that Banky W had never planned to be in California. We have found out that this information was 100 percent false. As you can imagine, my partners and I felt betrayed and went on a public tirade against EME and Banky W.  Sparks flew, tempers raged, and certain statements were issued, on Twitter and in the Nigerian Entertainment blogosphere, due to the intensity of the situation,” Eche-Enzina Emole, chief promoter and director of Royal Entertainment, noted in the statement,

According to Emole, the information available to Royal Entertainment was unproved while what they heard about Banky W’s character was baseless thus the need to publicly apologise to the singer and his crew.

“Those allegations have proven themselves to be completely untrue. To his credit, Mr Wellington and EME acted with dignity through the whole ordeal, and Royal Entertainment would like to publicly apologise for the way we handled the situation. Royal Entertainment would furthermore like to publicly retract what we, or any of our affiliates, have said negatively about Banky W and EME,” he added

Royal Entertainment also made it clear that there were no booking fees or deposit of any sort paid to EME for the California show and EME has also agreed to refund to Royal Entertainment the money spent in promoting the show. Fans who bought tickets in advance will also get a full refund through the various channels of purchase.

Showbiz Trends learnt that both Royal Entertainment and EME had agreed to release a public statement apologising to fans on the issue but instead, Royal Entertainment and its partners took over social and online media making false allegations against Banky W and the EME crew.

Banky W, the EME boss had posted on his official twitter handle on 14 August an apology to fans on the cancellation of the Canada and California shows and promised that EME will make the remaining EME concerts memorable for their fans.

Commenting to Royal Entertainment’s public retraction and apology, Banky W said: “We have accepted the apology. It’s time to move on.”

—Funsho Arogundade