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Entertainment of Saturday, 11 September 2010

Source: Daily Guide

Maame Dokono Vrs Julie Juu

Talk show hostess and actress Grace Omaboe, popularly known as Maame Dokono, who was recently acquitted and discharged by an Accra Circuit Court for allegedly neglecting her orphanage, Peace and Love, has found herself in court again.

Fellow actress Abena Achiaa aka Julie Juu dragged Maame Dokono and three others to an Accra High Court to be cited for contempt.

Maame Dokone was said to be part of a 20-member funeral planning committee tasked to ensure the smooth burial of Nana Bosomprah, the producer of Cantata who died a few months ago and has since been buried.

Maame Dokono, David Dontoh and Amankwa Ampofo of Obrah fame and two others have been accused by Julie Juu of contempt of court for burying the late producer, who she claims was her husband, without her involvement.

Grace Omaboe, 61, opened up to DAILY GUIDE in an exclusive interview about her relationship with the late producer who was also a scriptwriter, and her alleged role in the burial of the man who made Obra and Cantata famous.

The actress said she met the deceased producer who she affectionately called Nana “about 35 years ago when I was just beginning my acting career and the most popular Akan programme on Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) was then called Keteke”.

She said she and the deceased became very good friends as he was very hardworking and friendly. Later, they got separated after the Keteke show was ‘killed’ to make way for other Akan programmes which eventually led to the birth of Obra.

She said since then, she and Nana had been nice to each other, strongly denying suggestions that she was not on talking terms with him before he passed away.

According to Maame Dokono, she knew Nana’s wife to be Christina Bosomprah who left Ghana more than 30 years ago to seek greener pastures abroad, adding that she was aware that Christina always visited her husband in Ghana from time to time.

Furthermore, the actress stated that when she heard that the producer had passed on, she was called and informed as an actress and a colleague to help in planning the funeral.

She disclosed that “when someone in showbiz dies, we in the showbiz industry all come together to ensure that we organize the funeral well”.

In addition, Maame Dokono said, knowing the family of Nana, she could not refuse to be part of the planning committee, noting that she had no idea that she had stepped on some toes in the process of organizing the funeral with her Obra colleagues, as she was not even aware that Julie Juu was married to Nana.

She said as far as she knew, the two might have dated because they worked together but “I did not hear of any marriage because while we were planning the funeral with his family, the wife and her relatives together contributed to the performance of the funeral, after which she returned to Germany where she is domiciled”.

Maame Dokono denied that the deceased was separated from his wife, saying some of the producer’s children have been going to court with the Abusuapanyin of the family who has also been cited for contempt.

Explaining further, she stated that if Nana and his wife were separated, the extended family of Nana would not have called the woman to come and play any role in his burial, adding that it is rather the alleged marriage between the late Nana and Julie Juu which has come as a surprise to her and many others because “we all know that in such marriages, the showbiz community and the Abusuapanyin of Nana should have at least been aware.”

The talk show hostess, who refused to talk further about the alleged marriage of Nana and Julie Juu, said she was surprised that out of 20 members of the funeral committee, only three of them were singled out for the contempt case in court.

She said she could not have gone to collect the body for burial as she was not a family member and observed that they only helped in planning the funeral after the family of the deceased had decided on a burial date.

Maame Dokono would appear in an Accra High Court for the determination of the contempt application filed by Julie Juu who wanted an injunction on the body of the deceased until she was recognised as his lawful wife.