Popcaan Calls For PM Holness’ Help After Being Detained At UK Airport, Again
For the umpteenth time, Popcaan has been detained by immigration at an airport in the UK, and the Dancehall superstar, though unperturbed, is seemingly getting exasperated at what his attorney Bert Samuels has previously described as a recurring decimal.
The God is Love singer, whose real name is Andrae Sutherland, took to his Instagram stories to share his woes on Tuesday afternoon, and tagged Prime Minister Andrew Holness, while calling once again, for a resolution.
“They just give me this paper and detained me; because of information that was sent by my country that I should be stopped every time I’m here. I wonder why. Mr Prime Minister of Jamaica, I would like to draw your attention to this once, again,” Popcaan stated in a highly polished manner.
It is highly likely that Popcaan, who heads the Unruly Entertainment music outfit, which includes a record label and enterprises in concert promotion, might have been mistaken with a group of miscreants based in St. Catherine, whose criminal organization bears a similar name.
The St. Catherine-based ‘Unruly Gang’ criminal network, appears to have been in existence from as far back as 2009, and according to police reports from that time, operated from Portmore Lane and later Washington Mews and other areas of Portmore. They were also named among 190 gangs operating in 12 parishes within Jamaica, in July 2017.
In January this year, the apparent confusion between Popcaan’s Unruly clan and the St Catherine-based criminal network came became evident, after the St. Thomas native tweeted that he was languishing in immigration in England after “gang leader and firearm allegations had popped up against his name”.
“I would like to know why someone with authority in Jamaica send information to England immigration that I’m a gang leader and I got charge with firearm, this is not cool at all from my own country, why I have to be sitting in immigration for over 3 hours??” he had tweeted at the time.
In January when Popcaan had revealed his immigration dilemma on social media, his attorney Bert Samuels had described the myriad of woes, the Dancehall superstar had been encountering, including red flags against his name which results in him being unnecessarily held in immigration, whenever he visits the UK, as “embarrassing, defamatory and scandalous”.
Samuels had said that Popcaan had been going through the irritating procedure for the “past three to four years”. He had also said that as usual, after the checks were made, Popcaan was allowed to go about his business in the UK, as usual.
“Every time that Popcaan enters the UK he is kept in immigration for three hours or more on the basis that there is a red flag with the allegations that he named out in his tweet,” the attorney had said.
“Those allegations are totally false. Popcaan has a clean record in Jamaica. At no time has Popcaan ever been charged with anything to do with a gun. It is embarrassing that this information originates from Jamaica. It is defamatory and scandalous. It has implications for his ability to travel elsewhere in the world frontally,” he had added.
Popcaan had also engaged the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment & Sport, tagging her and asking in a subsequent tweet: “@Babsy_grange I try to ask for your help with this before, Why people from my own country fighting Popcaan and telling lies about me and sending it to other countries?? I don’t know what cause but it needs to be off my name.”