MAHAMA FREES MONTIE 3

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

President John Mahama has freed the Montie trio who were jailed by the Supreme Court over contemptuous remarks they made during a radio programme on Montie FM - an Accra private radio station.

A statement issued by Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, Communications Minister, announced that the president, “in consultation with the Council of State and in exercise of his constitutional powers under Article 72 of the Constitution, remitted the remaining prison sentence imposed on three persons: Salifu Maase (alias Mugabe), Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn who were sentenced to 4 months imprisonment and a fine of GH¢10,000.00 each for contempt of court.”

The remission is effective Friday, August 26, 2016 - one month after their conviction, the statement added.

The three persons were sentenced on July 27, 2016 and have served part of the jail sentence slapped on them, aside the payment of fines.

The NDC activists who claimed they are die hard supporters of President John Mahama, threatened to kill the judges after boasting on air that they know where they (judges) reside, with one of them adding that Chief Justice Georgina Wood should be prepared to be raped in the event of war breaking out because a certain Nash of Mataheko said he would ‘marry’ her.

The remission comes at the heels of various orchestrated signatories to a petition opened at the Montie FM station.

Government ministers and appointees have all trooped to the radio station to append their signatures to the petition.

The government statement on the remission continued, “The decision of His Excellency the President to remit their sentences on compassionate grounds follows a petition submitted to him by the contemnors appealing to the President to exercise his prerogative of mercy even as they continue to express deep remorse and regret for the unacceptable statements they made against the Judiciary.”

A plea of clemency reportedly entered by the Council of State on behalf of the three: Salifu Maase aka Mugabe, the ‘Pampaso’ programme host on Montie FM and his two guests, Godwin Ako Gunn, 39 and Alistair Tairo Nelson, 41, to the president two weeks ago, added to the seeming pressure brought to bear upon the president to grant the three a pardon.

The decision appears to have shocked political pundits who believe that if plea of clemency is the only way to get out of prisons then a lot of prisoners are more qualified than the NDC convicts, who in the face of the matter being in court, were recalcitrant, showing no remorse until it dawned on them that they were going to prison.

NDC Press

Some pro-NDC newspapers had already published a story to the effect that the Council of State met the president over a remission and that it was only a matter of time that the trio would come out of the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons.

However, DAILY GUIDE sources had also suggested that President Mahama had sought to use the impending visit of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe whom they were going to persuade to add his voice to the call for the release of the trio. However, the trip could not take place as the Zimbabwean leader cancelled the trip, citing security concerns back home.

Presentation Of Petition

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

The Chairperson had 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. President Mahama has eventually been given the green light to free the convicts.

Executive Petitions Executive

Key ministers that signed the petition include Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang (Education), Nana Oye Lithur (Gender 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, of 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, had visited the convicts at Nsawam.

This shows that all the ministers were in support of the attack on the justices, including the threat of rape on Chief Justice Georgina Wood.

Salifu Maase had 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 for threatening to kill the judges.