The President of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Most Rev. Joseph Osei, has criticized those calling on President John Mahama to grant a presidential pardon to the Montie trio jailed four months for contempt of court.
Rev. Osei Bonsu held that any attempt to alter the judgement of the bench will undermine the Judiciary and the principle of separation of powers.
Two petitions, from lawyers of the three and a group calling itself the Research Advocacy platform, have already been presented to the Presidency in a bid to persuade President Mahama to activate his prerogative of mercy powers under Article 72 of the 1992 Constitution.
The three; Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, were sentenced to serve four months in jail after they were found guilty of contempt charges after following threats on the lives of judges who were presiding over a case on the credibility of the voters’ register.
Why put pressure on the President?
Rev. Joseph Osei Bonsu spoke to Citi News about the petitions noting that, “If a case has come before them and they think that those who perpetrated that act need to be jailed for four months, who am I to tell them that the sentence is too short or too long.”
“Why put pressure on the President to grant a pardon? If you do that, then it means that from now long, anytime the Supreme Court jails a person, the president will have to come in and grant a pardon. In any case, it is not the first time that Supreme Court has jailed people.”
Petitions for the pardon of the three have garnered signatures from notable NDC officials and government appointees including a Deputy Education Minister in charge of tertiary, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Minister of Education, Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman and the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare.
But Most Rev. Osei Bonsu’s message to such individuals clamoring for a presidential pardon for the three was that they “should just leave the Supreme Court to do its work and that they shouldn’t put any pressure on the President.”