‘Free Montie 3’ Movement holds vigil
A group calling itself Free Montie 3 Movement, led by the Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Koku Anyidoho, last Friday held a night-long vigil in Accra in solidarity with the three individuals who have been jailed for contemptuous statement against the Supreme Court.
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Numbering about 500 and dressed in white outfits with red armbands, the group stood at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum for more than six hours chanting: "Free Montie Three now."
Some of the members of the group were also spotted wearing T-shirts that had the pictures of the jailed Montie trio, Salifu Maase, popularly known as Mugabe, Alistair Nelson and Godwin Gunn.
Also present to give his support was the Chairman of the People’s National Convention ( PNC), Mr Bernard Mornah.
Prior to the Friday night vigil, some workers of Montie Fm, also held a candlelight vigil on the company's premises.
The vigil was also part of an attempt to get President John Mahama to invoke his powers under article 72 of the Constitution to grant the Montie three a reprieve from the rather "harsh" four-month jail term.
Already, a petition book has been opened to secure the names and signatures of more than a million Ghanaians to mount pressure on President Mahama to release them.
So far, a Deputy Education Minister in charge of tertiary, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa; the Head of the Presidential Delivery Unit, Dr Valerie Sawyerr; Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare; Deputy Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mr Benjamin Dagadu, have signed the petition book.
Background
The Supreme Court last Wednesday sent a strong warning to people who made irresponsible comments on media platforms by sentencing two radio panellists and a programme host to four months’ imprisonment each for scandalising the court.
The two panellists, Alistair Tairo Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn, and the host, Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, were also to pay GH¢10,000 each or in default serve an additional one month each in prison.
The two panellists, spurred on by Maase, threatened the lives of judges of the superior court, especially those who heard the case on the credibility of the country’s electoral roll filed by Abu Ramadan and Evans Nimako against the Electoral Commission (EC).
Bawumia to be blamed
Addressing the gathering at the event, Mr Anyidoho blamed the running mate to the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, for the predicament of the Montie three.
According to him, if Dr Bawumia had not initiated the call for a new voters register in which he provided "forged documents" to the Electoral Commission, "this episode would not have happened".
Mr Anyidoho insisted that it was Dr Bawumia’s assertions that resulted in Abu Ramadan and Evans Nimako going to court during which the Montie three, in their comments on the matter, found themselves in trouble.
He, therefore, indicated his intention to drag Dr Bawumia to court for failing to provide further evidence to back claims that Ghana’s voters register contained many names of Togolese nationals.