Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) could have been a mess due to the shoddiness of the Bayelsa State government its major sponsor. Bayelsa State government we learnt did not release sponsorship money meant for the award until the last minute and this resulted in clumsy logistic arrangements and the delay of the Ghanaian contingent in returning home after the award.

The state government “…did not also open the venue of the award to organizers until the day of the award…”. This resulted in shoddy decoration of the venue . Worse still there was no generator. The organizers had to do a last-minute run around that almost failed; hence the event started late.

AMAA people had to go to town cap-in-hand looking for suitable generator and at last they had to combine four generating sets to illuminate the hall. The occasional sound interruption was due to this arrangement. SBN also learnt the state government left AMAA on its own immediately after the award and reneged on its promise to take care of the transportation of the Ghanaian stars.

As a result the Ghanaians spent additional days in Bayelsa and AMAA organizers had to do a last minute damage control. We learnt people are already whispering to AMAA organizers to take the award away from Bayelsa as Governor Slyva hasn’t demonstrated enough commitment to the award since he took over the reigns of leadership from Goodluck Jonathan.

However a source defended Bayelsa government , saying the recent face-off with EFCC has had a deletrious effect on the state. According to the source “EFCC is not making things easy again in Bayelsa and the state government is reluctant in bringing out money unlike before”.

AMAA was not immediately available for comment as at the time of going to press.