Calls for Montie trio’s release legitimate – Anyidoho

A Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho, has described as legitimate calls by supporters of the party to have President Mahama intervene by pardoning the jailed Montie FM trio.

Koku Anyidoho, who says he finds nothing wrong with the actions by the supporters, is of the view that failure to release the Montie FM presenter and his two panelists ,will amount to criminalizing free speech.

Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, were sentenced to serve four months in jail on Wednesday, after they were found guilty of contempt charges, following the threats to kill the Supreme Court judges, over their handling of the lawsuit on the credibility of the voters' register.

Several persons, including the Foreign Affairs Minister, Hanna Tetteh as well as her party, the NDC ,  have stated that the sentence handed to the three is harsh.

Mr. Anyidoho asserted that “It is a legitimate call and there is nothing arbitrary or unconstitutional about it; the framers of the constitution were not asleep when they put article 72 in the constitution; they certainly were wide awake.”

Speaking further, Mr. Anyidoho cited the 1st July amnesty that the President gives to convicted criminals, arguing that the three men were not convicted criminals.

“We are only using the constitution and the Supreme Court justices were within the constitutional mandate and right to sentence, so does the constitution grant the same power to the President to grant clemency if he so desires.''

In a move to pile pressure on the President to pardon the three, a petition book has been opened at the premises of Radio Gold and the Freedom Centre, to solicit petitions for onward submission to the President.

Government officials and senior members of the NDC have signed the petition.

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By: Lorrencia Nkrumah/citifmonline.com/Ghana