MONTIE 3 TO BE FREED? COUNCIL OF STATE

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, August 09, 2016

There are strong indications that the three National Democratic Congress (NDC) activists who were convicted for contempt by the Supreme Court two weeks ago, are going to be pardoned soon.

 This follows the activation of the process to see the three convicts, who threatened to kill the justices of the Supreme Court and have the Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood ‘raped’ in the process, breathe free air.

Yesterday, Chief of Staff at the office of the president, Julius Debrah, on behalf of President John Dramani Mahama, presented to the Council of State petitions in respect of the incarceration of the three persons. 

The petitions, according to a statement from the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau, were received from lawyers of the jailed Montie FM Presenter, Salifu Maase aka Mugabe, and his two panelists, Ako Gunn and Alistair Nelson, who are serving four months each at the Nsawam Prisons. The other petition was from an NDC group - Research & Advocacy Platform (RAP).

The NDC activists were jailed by the Supreme Court for scandalizing the court on Accra-based Montie FM owned by NDC gurus Ato Ahwoi and Harry Zakour. 

Presenting the petitions to the Chairperson of the Council of State, Cecilia Johnson, the Chief of Staff, who was former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Julius Debrah said President Mahama was looking forward to the advice of the Council. 

The Chairperson announced that the petitions would be submitted to the Legal Committee of the Council for initial review before the Council as a whole meets to consider the issues. 

After the radio presenter and the panelists were jailed, Research & Advocacy Platform, formed by Felix Kwakye Ofosu, a deputy Minister of Communications, initiated the collection of signatures with appointees of the president lining up to sign the petition for the president to pardon the convicts.

The group presented its report to the presidency last week, which has subsequently been presented to the Cecilia Johnson-led Council.

Intense Pressure

DAILY GUIDE has gathered that pressure is being mounted on President Mahama by NDC members to get the three convicts freed since they were speaking for him when they ran into trouble.

The pressure appears to have been intense since the three -  Salifu Maase aka Mugabe, the host of ‘Pampaso,’ a political talk-show on Montie FM and his two panelists, Godwin Ako Gunn and Alistair Tairo Nelson, who used the network to broadcast hate speeches, reportedly endorsed a letter to President Mahama at the Flagstaff House from their Nsawam Medium Security Prison, asking the president to free them.

Pleas For Clemency

The letter for clemency had been sent by lawyers of the trio and was received by Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, on behalf of the president.

Furthermore, the petition by ministers of state, government appointees and NDC activists, has also been sent to the president to consider, triggering the pardon Clause in Article 72 to free the convicts who boasted on radio that they were not afraid to go to jail.

This is coming in the wake of equally strong calls by reputable civil society organization and very important personalities to the president not to succumb to the whims of his party members.

PPP Counter Petition

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has even set up a desk asking for signatures to counter the calls by NDC activists.

The flagbearer of the PPP, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, signed the petition, urging President John Mahama to respect the judgement of the Supreme Court against the Montie 3.

PPP Policy Advisor Kofi Asamoah Siaw insisted that any decision by President Mahama to revoke the sentence will “be a slap in the face of the judiciary.”

He said should the president go ahead to free the three, “it will embolden other future offenders” to take similar action if the three are to receive any sort of presidential pardon.

NDC Optimism

The claims about a possible grant of the amnesty was cemented when one of the lawyers for the convicts, Edudzi Tamakloe who is also the NDC Greater Accra deputy Regional Youth Organizer, expressed optimism on radio last week.

He said if they did not have confidence that the president was going to invoke his executive powers, they would not be pushing the agenda for the trio to be freed.

Ministers Role

Key ministers that have already signed the petition include Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang (Education), Nana Oye Lithur (Gender, Children and Social Protection), Elizabeth Ofosu Agyare (Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts), Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (deputy Education), Felix Kwakye Ofosu (deputy Communications), Benjamin Dagadu (deputy Energy and Petroleum), Benita Okiti Dua (deputy Minister of Fisheries), among others.

The appointees like Valerie Sawyerr, former deputy Chief of Staff at the office of the president and others have signed while former Attorney General Betty Mould Iddrisu, now a Vice Chairperson of the NDC, also gave her endorsement while the likes of Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Minister of Trade and Industry, has visited the convicts in Nsawam.

Mugabe has always boasted that he speaks to defend the president and if because of Mr. Mahama he would go to jail, so be it. 

The Attorney General had refused to press criminal charges against the convicts.