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28.07.2016 General News

SC Was Lenient On Montie Gang -Atta Akyea

By Ghanaian Chronicle
SC Was Lenient On Montie Gang -Atta Akyea
28.07.2016 LISTEN

By Maxwell Ofori, Parliament House
Lawyer and Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta Akyea has stated that the Supreme Court (SC) was very indulgent on the contemnors in the Montie saga, by sentencing them to four (4) months imprisonment.


He said the Judiciary is a powerful institution that must be given the highest reverence because they work to ensure sanity in the country and also to protect the democracy of the State.

Alistar Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase, aka Mugabe, panelists and a host respectively, were sentenced to a 4 month imprisonment for threatening the lives of judges. But Atta Akyea was of the view that, “the SC have been moderate with them because this should have been a year or two,” he stated.

In an exclusive interview with The Chronicle yesterday, he expressed disappointment in how the trio sought to denigrate the powers of the court. According to him, it was pathetic how people who are expected to set example for others rather threatened the apex court of the land.

“It saddens me that people who are supposed to be in the inky fraternity, people who are supposed to be members of the fourth realm of government should lower the standard of journalism in this country, to the extent that they have to face imprisonment, that saddens me indeed, ” he said

The lawyer continued that the SC could not have ignored the issue, looking at its critical nature, citing that the SC was very moderate in sentencing them.

“The situation was too critical to ignore in the sense that, how do you denigrate the third arm of government, as if it were an appendage of government? What they did was so serious. I am humbly of the view that the outcome now was so moderated to reasonable extent, so that it will not be seen as if, when you have power then you kill a mosquito with an AK47. So I am of the humble view that the punishment is well measured,” he noted.

He further told this paper that, there should be some checks into who sponsors the act. He explained that no professional journalist would use his time to only destroy the hard earned reputation of others.

“What I believe should be the case in Ghana is that we should watch the people who hire them to do these things, because there is no way any serious journalist would be doing what they did. I am tempted to believe that there are people who are politically strong who take pleasure that somebody’s reputation is been destroyed.”

He continued that, the owners might not have had any glory when the trio were using their platform to destroy other’s reputation, though was quick to add that, if they were, then they “are worse off than those going to jail.”

Commenting on whether or not the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) did well in defending the guys, he described the action by the BNI as a ‘disgrace’ for determining the outcome that, the people could not carry out the threat “as if they (BNI) are competent court of jurisdiction,” he opined.

He noted that, “When we have an institution that is suppose to deal with criminalities, any time another man threatens to finish you, you are confident to let the law deal with the person. The sanity of a nation is secured when wrongdoers are dealt with no matter the hue and colour of the politics they are doing.”

On the role the owners of the network played to ensure such thing did not happen on their network, Atta Akyea said: “Why would you want to create a platform for others to misbehave. Wouldn’t they want to check the content of the delivery of those they’ve hired to do the job.

“Would you give a job to anybody? That is not how an owner should run a setup? The owner should have regard to the aims and objective of the company.”

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