Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday, August 03, 2016
Renowned author, Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo, has condemned ministers of
state who are lining up to sign a petition to get President John Mahama to
grant amnesty to the three National Democratic Congress (NDC) activists
convicted for contempt by the Supreme Court last week.
Prof Aidoo, a poet, playwright and academic, singled out Education
Minister Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang and the
Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, who have signed
the petition, for bashing, describing their actions as unfortunate.
Outright
Condemnation
The ministers and other appointees have set tongues wagging after it
emerged that they were part of the group of NDC agitators signing a petition to
get the President to release the convicts. And since then reputable civil
society organizations, as well as, many people of substance, continue to condemn
their actions unreservedly.
“It’s unfortunate that the petition was initiated at all, and even
more unfortunate that it’s being signed by the likes of the Ministers of
Education and of Gender, Children and Social Protection,” Prof. Aidoo said in a
statement.
She added, “No one who is interested in Ghana as a wholesome space
for all human beings, and especially for its young growing population, would
want to sign this particular petition to the President of the Republic.
“In fact, and this is my petition to the president. He should join
the whole of Ghana to take the opportunity of this rather unfortunate affair as
a wake-up call. That threatening anybody with harm, rape, death or causing them
injury in anyway, including slander, is just wrong.”
Prof Aidoo, who once served as Education Minister under the J.J.
Rawlings administration said, “Threatening members of the Supreme Court with
such violence is certainly not a crime that should be in anyway overlooked or
pardoned.”
Nation Wreckers
The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of
Ghana, Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey, preferred to describe those agitating for
the release of the convicts as ‘nation wreckers.’
“I think we should not
interfere with what they [Justices] have done because once we do that we create
a situation where we undermine one arm of government, because as soon as they
come up with their judgment, somebody is going to appeal for an intervention
which will not augur well for this nation,” he said.
Catholic
Bishops
President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Most Rev.
Joseph Osei Bonsu, urged President Mahama to uphold judicial independence and
not succumb to pressure by his party members to set the convicts free.
“I think we will set a very dangerous precedent. This is not the
first time people have been sentenced and if groups and individuals are going
to appeal to the president every time a sentence is given, then there will be
chaos in the country. So, I think we are setting a very bad precedent by this
kind of pressure on the president because the Supreme Court has handed various
sentences to many individuals in the past and I don’t see why in this case
people are appealing to the president,” Prof. Emmanuel Martey wondered.
Peace Council’s
Caution
Chairman of the National Peace Council and former Presiding Bishop
of the Methodist Church, Ghana, Rev. Prof Emmanuel Asante, said it was
unfortunate for the NDC activists to pile pressure on the president to pardon
the convicts.
Veteran lawyer Sam Okudzeto said the president and his NDC party
will lose the election if he (president) succumbs to pressure to pardon the Montie FM gang who had threatened to
murder judges.
“People have threatened to kill judges, which is a criminal offence,
which is there in the criminal code and the Attorney General has not prosecuted
them and he [President Mahama] wants to go and pardon? He should go ahead and
pardon them because his party people want it, his party chairman said it, but
as for me, I will not be a party to it.”
Killing 2nd
Term Dream
Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby aka Tarzan said President Mahama would be
‘killing’ his second term presidential bid, should he succumb to pressure and
free the convicts.
“I do not need to conjure my
inherited DNA powers from Okomfo Anokye to predict that if the president were
to act in the interest and name of the NDC, instead of the people of Ghana, it
will sound the death knell for his second term ambition. It will also be the
last gasp act of the 'gaping sycophants' who have trotted out to be seen
publicly to be putting pressure on their boss to act unwisely. Yet I have this
underlining feeling that all these folks who enjoy the V8 & S7 trappings of
power will act so brazenly unless it is all part of a shambolic, coordinated
act of which JDM is fully aware, and/or orchestrating from the comfort of the
Flagstaff House,” he warned.
Ursula’s Counsel
Gender activist and NPP MP for Ablekuma West, Ursula Owusu Ekuful,
who is the Chairperson for Social Development Committee in Parliament, descended
on the female government appointees who had joined the crusade to get the president
to free the convicts.
“We expected them to use this case as teachable moment to educate
the public about women’s rights and rape as gender based violence which
constitutes a heinous assault on physical, psychological and emotional well-being
of victims. Instead they are leading the charge to pardon the convicts. This is
indeed a sad day for women and the fight for women’s rights in Ghana,” she
said.
CSOs Concern
Reputable Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have waded into the
debate, asking the president to ignore the ministers and the party’s activists.
Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG),
Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey, expressed grave concern about the conduct of the
government appointees in the matter, saying such acts fly in the face of the
tenets of rule of law.
“The president is there to defend the national interest and I think
the ministers, like the president, must also stop activism and represent the
entire nation,” he told Joy News on
the sidelines of the induction ceremony of the new Vice Chancellor of
University of Ghana on Monday.
Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) was more concerned about the
continuous failure of the criminal justice institutions to deal with such
issues, pointing out that “the police, who have the responsibility for such
matters, failed to act; and so did the Attorney General and Minister of
Justice, whose remit is to safeguard the integrity of the Judiciary.”
Vulgar misuse of
power
The CDD said in a statement yesterday that “If the president was to
succumb to the pressure from the party and pro-government activists to exercise
his power this way, it would represent the most vulgar misuse of executive
power and, worse still, set a dangerous precedent. In a sense, it will
institutionalize an already unfair practice of incumbent party sympathizers
being treated differently before the law and by the state.”
CDD continued, “Montie FM
and its owners are avowed NDC and Mahama administration supporters and promoters. No matter the depth of sympathy for the
individuals involved in the Montie
case, this cannot be a constructive cure.
Moving forward, to arrest the gradual erosion of the democratic
governance gains made under the 4th Republic, we need to examine the
deficiencies that have allowed the 1992 Constitution to be understood and
applied in this bizarre manner.”
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