MAHAMA MUST NOT PARDON MONTIE 3 - PPP, NPP

Alhaji Mustapha Hamid, Spokesperson for the New Patriotic Party Flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said he is hopeful the conviction of the Montie FM trio will be enough to deter recklessness in the media landscape, and ensure sanity.

While many have hailed the decision of the Supreme Court, groups like the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), have slammed the four-month jail term imposed on each of the Montie three, describing it as too harsh.

However, Alhaji Hamid is convinced the jail-term is not harsh because according to him, “this is not the first time and so a stiffer punishment is what is needed to curb the problem.”

Hamid also said it was wrong for people to juxtapose the jailing of the trio with those convicted during the 2012 election petition for contempt, because the trio went “beyond what the others said at the election petition about the unfairness of judges to threatening them”.

According to him, the “bar needed to be raised” this time because “if you raise the bar in the issue of contempt, then we should also raise the bar of the punishment a bit so that perhaps this one will truly serve as a deterrent”.

“I have no doubt in my mind that if some people are to do this again, I guess that this time we will go beyond the four months”, he added.

PPP cautions Mahama against pardon

Meanwhile, the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) is cautioning President John Mahama not to take any decision on the custodial sentencing of the three that might undermine the supremacy of the Supreme Court justices.

Article 72 of the country’s constitution gives the President, in consultation of the Council of State, the power to exercise a prerogative of mercy to convicts, but the Policy Advisor for the PPP, Kofi Asamoah Siaw, told Citi News any decision by the President to revoke the sentencing will “be a slap in the face of the judiciary”.

He said the President will “embolden other future offenders” to take similar action if the three are to receive any sort of presidential pardon.

“They are going to say that once we do it in the name of a party that is in government, once we do it in the name of a presidential candidate because of certain powers we have, we will be pardoned and therefore the fear of the punishment of contempt becomes useless” he said.