Burna Boy concert promoter Sedote Nwachukwu flees South Africa

Sedote Nwachukwu, CEO of Ternary Media Group, the entertainment company that was supposed to bring Nigerian superstar Burna Boy to South Africa, has fled the country, with fraud charges stemming from the now cancelled concert still hanging over his head.

Nwachukwu, who was in charge of organising the gig which was set for 23 September, was accused of swindling the prominent entertainment company of R10m.

A case of fraud was opened against Nwachukwu at the Sandton Police Station earlier on during the week by his partner, Gregory Wings.

Speaking to Sowetan Live on Thursday afternoon, Nwachukwu said he was leaving the country on advice from his lawyer.

“I’m at the airport now and about to board my flight back to America. I’m leaving because I’ve been advised to do so by my lawyer,” he said.

Nwachukwu said while the allegations of fraud had been leveled against him, it was Wings that had been pocketing money from ticket sales.

“The event in total sold almost over 20,000 tickets but Greg took 6,000 of the 11,000 tickets sold by Ticketpro. I am being told that he went around selling and distributing them at night clubs and campuses. I haven’t seen him since I’ve set foot here in SA over a week ago,” Nwachukwu said.

The tickets were selling from R500 to nearly R6,000.

“I initially brought Greg on board for this project because I wanted to give him a second chance at life after he served time in prison for fraud. Had I known he would’ve done this to me, I wouldn’t have agreed to do business with him.

“Greg was in charge of invoices and anything related to the paper work of the promotion for this concert. I didn’t know he had plans to do this. I am aware of a case being opened because of the fraudulent acts of my business partner Gregory Wings,” said Nwachukwu.

A few days before, Nwachukwu’s partner, Wings, however revealed that the show had been shelved because of the theft of R10m from the company.

A case of fraud has been opened against Nwachukwu at the Sandton Police Station, Ternary Media Group spokesperson, Kymoni Jackson confirmed.

“He [Nwachukwu] stole R10m; that’s why we had to call it off. He lied to everyone that was part of the event and his investor Gregory Wings.

“We are willing to refund people, however tickets are still valid for the next show. Burna Boy was very excited to come [to SA] but we had to deal with this internal issue of Mr Nwachuku [first]…” said Jackson.

Despite the new revelations, Jackson said Burna Boy would be coming to fulfil his contractual obligations in December.