The Supreme Court bared its teeth yesterday. At a packed courtroom in Accra, the highest court in the land, sentenced three radio personalities to four months in jail each after being found guilty of contempt.
It followed a death threat on judges aired on June 29, 2016, incidentally on the eve of the 34th anniversary of the abduction and cold-blooded murder of three high court judges and an army officer.
Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn, the two penalists and their host, Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, of Montie FM, an Accra-based radio station aligned to the ruling National Democratic Congress, were immediately whisked away to begin their sentence.
In addition, the jailed personalities were fined GHc10,000 each in lieu of which they would serve additional month each in jail. Mr. Harry Zakour, who owns the frequency was also slapped with a GHc30,000 fine.
Other owners of the station, listed as Edward Addo, Harry Zakour, Ato Ahwoi and Kwesi Kyei Attah, all known officials of the ruling party, were ordered to pay a collective fine of GHc30,000. They have up to the end of today to redeem the fine.
The high profile case, seen from the view of politics, was adjourned from July 18 for sentencing after all three accused persons had pleaded guilty to the charge of contempt. At yesterday’s sitting Mrs. Justice Sophia Akufo, who read out the sentences on behalf of the court, said the panelists were at the radio station that fateful day, to attack judges with venom.
It is unfortunate that we should come to this after the Criminal Libel Law was expunged from the rule books in 2001, to free newsmen especially, from going to jail for merely expressing their views on matters pertaining to state officials.
The reckless use of the microphone especially and several unsubstantiated attacks on individuals have necessitated that the rule book is thrown at people misusing the opportunity to use the microphone especially.
The Chronicle hopes that the sentences would discourage other panelists from reckless use of the microphone. With election in the air, some radio stations, especially Montie FM, appears to have specialized in spewing insults at political opponents. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Ptresidential Candidate of the NPP, for instance, has become a canon-fodder for the Montie station and its panelists.
The contempt charge at the Supreme Court had become a test case that has left a number of state institutions bruised and battered. Officials of the Bureau of National Investigations, for instance, must have rotten eggs all over their faces. When the story first broke out, the BNI demonstrated why the ordinary Ghanaian should lose sleep over the independence of the bureau.
State-run Daily Graphic published a statement purported to have been issued by the BNI, stating emphatically, that those who threatened the lives of our judges on radio, were not capable of carrying out their threat.
Obviously, that statement was deliberately put out there to ameliorate their offence before the judges of the Supreme Court. The pronouncement of their guilt and sentencing yesterday, leaves a huge credibility gap for the BNI to fill.
The Attorney-General’s Department cannot escape blame for the inability to prosecute the Montie trio on a criminal charge of threatening to kill the judges. Threat to kill, is a crime punishable under the country’s criminal code.
The Chronicle would like to emphasize that the criminal aspect of the pronouncement on Montie Radio, might have escaped the security services, particularly the Bureau iof National Investigation and the Criminal Investigations of the Police, because the personalities involved are all aligned to the ruling NDC.
Had any of them traced his political leaning to the opposition New Patriotic Party especially, we would like to submit, Ghanaians would not have been treated to the ‘no show’ stance of these security agents.
It is unfortunate, but this society is so polarized that perception is growing that justice is beginning to wear a political colour. That is one reason why the iron hands exhibited by our Supreme Court judges yesterday, should resonate in various newsrooms in both the electronic and print media.
It should also dawn on our political elites that the tendency to get away with murder as a result of the political persuasion of erring personalities, is being dealt a serious blow at the Supreme Court.
The sentencing should also inform owners of the electronic medium especially, that it pays to employ professionals. Cheap donkeys, says a Wala proverb, do not climb hills.
In other words, professionalism is key in avoiding the tendency to go at those perceived to be political opponents without any basis. Let the Supreme Court verdict cleanse the media landscape as we meander towards the December 7 poll.