With opinions divided right in the middle among Ghanaians regarding president Mahama’s remission of sentence for the ‘Montie 3’, General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress(NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah is bemused the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) isn’t jubilating since they’ve held that releasing the trio would lead to defeat at the polls for the president.
“Those who were arguing against the President granting this, they were even threatening that if the President does this he’s going to lose elections and so on…I’ll expect those people to be jubilating today, because there are people who wants him to lose elections anyway,†the shrewd party functionary told Bernard Avle on Citi FM’s morning show.
Mr. Nketiah stressed, no one could have forced the hand of the president but that he acted purely on the basis of compassion granted him under Article 72 of the 1992 Constitution.
A statement signed by Communications Minister Dr. Edward Omane Boamah read: “The President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, has, in consultation with the Council of State and in exercise of his constitutional powers under Article 72 of the Constitution, remitted the remainder of the prison sentence imposed on three persons: Salifu Maase (alias Mugabe), Alistair Nelson and Ako Gunn, who were sentenced to four months’ imprisonment and a fine of GHS10,000.00 each for contempt of court. The remission is effective 26th August, 2016.
The ‘Montie 3’ were sentenced to a four-month imprisonment term by the Supreme Court on July 27, 2016, for threatening to kill judges of the court.
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