Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
The embattled Montie FM
afternoon political programme host, Salifu Maase popularly called Mugabe, who
has been cited for contempt alongside others by the Supreme Court, is on his
knees begging the court to “tamper justice with mercy and compassion.”
He filed an affidavit in opposition yesterday to an application for
contempt brought against him by Richard Asante Yeboah.
Already, there is another special summons titled, “Summons to Show Cause” issued on Tuesday, July 5, and signed
by James Mensah, acting registrar of the Supreme
Court in Accra, given under the hand and seal of the Chief Justice, Georgina
Theodora Wood, against Mugabe, owners of Montie
FM as well as two National Democratic Congress (NDC) activists - one of who
threatened to kill judges over issues relating to the Electoral Commission (EC).
After he had been summoned, he
accused the justices of playing tribal cards, stating that he was being hauled
before the Supreme Court because he is a Northerner.
He stated that he was not afraid of
jail because people who are far better than him had gone to jail and back.
However, Mugabe, in his affidavit,
admitted that he works at Montie FM and
is the host of ‘Pampaso’ and said, “But my appointment with the station was
suspended on 4th July, 2016 until further notice due to the matters
giving rise to the application herein.”
He averred that he “took part and
participated in a programme on Montie FM
on the said days but I deny threatening to kill Supreme Court and High Court
justices because I was not happy with the orders directing the Electoral
Commission to furnish this hounourable court with the list of NHIS card
holders.”
According to Mugabe, he did not urge
on the panelists on his show to cast aspersions on any judge of the court and
explained that a particular remark he made bordered on statements made by
Kennedy Agyapong, Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, and said it
should not be considered as undermining the dignity, authority and sanctity of
the court.
“I did not know the statements I made
were contemptuous” as claimed by the applicant, adding, “I did not ask that the
passport of the Chief Justice alone should be seized.”
He averred, “I did not willfully make
clear statements which were intended to undermine the dignity, sanctity, and
authority of this honourable court. Later, after carefully listening to the
transcript attached to the affidavit in support, I realized that some of the
statements made by me and the others on the 24th June could be contemptuous.”
He said on 29th June, “I
cautioned the panelists prior to the commencement of the programme to desist
from making any unsavoury statements about the judiciary in general and the Supreme
Court in particular.
“On the programme I made clear statements
showing respect for our courts in general and the Supreme Court in particular,
thereby negating what we had stated earlier. On the said programme I also
praised Hon. Lady Chief Justice for the good work she had done and continues to
do.”
According to Mugabe, “Unfortunately,
during the programme a panelist suddenly got carried away and made some
unfortunate statements about the judiciary which sadly, I could not stop,” and
averred that Godwin Ako Gunn was not on the programme on June 29, 2016.
Tribal Bigotry
Interestingly, Mugabe was on radio last week saying that he was
being targeted for a sanction because he is from the northern part of Ghana.
In what looks like a clear case of tribal bigotry, he said, “Because
Mugabe is Tani (a person from the northern part of Ghana) and because Ntafuo
are not human beings, he should be sacrificed, he should be silenced in Ghana
so that we can leave them alone to do their work.”
Boastfulness
Just as the court was preparing the invitation on July 5, Mugabe was
boasting on radio that he is not so special to go to jail because important
personalities had been jailed before.
“Nobody fears anything in this country. We only respect the law.
When you go to Nsawam important personalities like Tsatsu Tsikata, Victor
Selormey (RIP), Kwame Peprah were all there. Are Alistair and Ako Gunn or
Mugabe more important than them?”
Montie Scapegoat
He continued, “Nobody at Montie
has offended the law. They want to use someone from Montie as a scapegoat but they won’t succeed,” boasting, “I have
said that if you fire a gun at me I’ll hit back ten times. If you fire ten I’ll
fire 20. If you fire 20 I’ll fire 40. If they stop ruffling feathers the noise
will also stop.”
The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Communication Team,
Alistair Tairo Nelson, 41 and Godwin Ako Gunn, 39 who were both panelists on
Pampaso as well as the owner(s) of Montie FM have also been cited for contempt
of court.
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