'No serious president will pardon Montie 3' - Prof Kwame Karikari
A renowned communications professor, Kwame Karikari has jumped into the debate of whether or not President John Dramani Mahama should grant pardon to the Montie 3.
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In a radio interview, he argued it would be unwise for the President to heed to the calls for a Presidential pardon for the Montie 3 and concluded that “no serious president in a democracy will accede to a call like that under our circumstances.
Lawyers for the convicted radio host and panelists of Montie FM have decided to petition President Mahama to pardon the three.
The move is to ensure that the President uses his prerogative of mercy, as stated in Article 72 of the 1992 Constitution, to pardon the three convicts.
Managers of Montie FM have indeed opened a petition book to solicit signatures of members of the public and sympathisers to back the petition in respect of getting the trio not to serve the four months custodial sentence imposed on them by the Supreme Court.
A number of people including Ministers of State and members from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) have appended their signatures to support the proposed petition.
The leadership of the NDC has thrown support for the petition.
Speaking to Accra based radio station, Citi FM, Professor Karikari, who founded the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), which promote, defend, protect, consolidate and expand the fundamental freedom of expression of all persons particularly the media said if the president was to pardon them, then the president would be telling the whole world that, “look all radio stations, now go out, it is free for all of you to threaten people, attack people, incite violence, bring the roots of this country down.”
“So I hope the NDC are not serious about asking the president, who is the head of their party to pardon these people, then it will be free for all and we will all know that it will be such free for all and this country will not have peace.”
He insisted it was up to the President to do so or not to do so. “If the president does so, what I’m saying is that the president then will be giving the orders to all these radio stations, who will raise mayhem in this country.”
“Because then what the president will be saying is that, look eh!, radio stations do as you please and court or no court, do as you please, you can bastardise the court, you can incite violence, you can threaten people’s lives and even go ahead and get people to do what we want the threat to do.
“No serious president in a democracy will accede to a call like that under our circumstances. Infact, it would be politically suicidal, I think, for the president to accede to the call of his party, That’s why I’m saying that I hope the NDC, what they are doing is a bluff.”
Professor Karikari was formerly head of the School of Communication Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon and now heads the communications department at Wisconsin University in Accra.
Background
The Supreme Court last Wednesday sent a strong warning to people who make 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).
The trio, together with the directors of Network Broadcasting Company Limited (NBCL), operators of Montie FM, the radio station where the comments were made, and ZeZe Media, owners of the station frequency, were on July 18, 2016 convicted for contempt of the apex court.
They were found guilty of scandalising the court, defying and lowering the authority of the court and bringing the name of the court into disrepute.
The court, however, did not sentence the trio for the threat of harm and death that they made against the judges, explaining that that constituted another matter for another branch of government to take action on.
With the Supreme Court breathing heavily on their necks, the trio sought to purge themselves by apologising on the station, while the management of the station also suspended the host.
But the action came a little too late, as the court declined to accept the apologies.
What the Constitution says
Article 72 (1) (a-d) of the Constitution mandates the President, acting in consultation with the Council of State, to exercise the Prerogative of Mercy.
These powers can be exercised through “(a) granting to a person convicted of an offence a pardon either free or subject to lawful conditions; or (b) grant to a person a respite, either indefinite or for a specified period, from the execution of punishment imposed on him for an offence; or (c) substitute a less severe form of punishment for a punishment imposed on a person for an offence; or (d) remit the whole or part of a punishment imposed on a person or of a penalty or forfeiture otherwise due to government on account of any offence”.
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