Kufuor once pardoned hardened criminals - NDC

A Deputy General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), has lambasted the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), over their comments following the remission of sentence handed the Montie trio.

Koku Anyidoho said the NPP and their agents are those making unnecessary comments over the presidential pardon and that, their comments do not represent the wider majority.

The outspoken politician recounted how former President Kufour re-paneled Supreme Court judges in the case of Tsatsu Tsikata to go in his favour.

The initial ruling by the court he noted, was a 5-4 in favour of Tsatsu Tsikata. However, former President Kufour who was at the time in Australia packed the Supreme Court to reverse the decision in his favour, he claimed.

That decision he posited was capricious as compared to that of the remission granted the trio who had served a month sentence out of their four months imprisonment.

President Kufour he maintained, pardoned hardened criminals with some of them ending up at Ashiaman, training young people in armed robbery.

Koku Anyidoho in an interview with Kwame Tutu on Rainbow Radio, asked the NPP not to remind Ghanaians of how they capriciously abused power to their advantage.

"President Mahama has followed due process. The trio were sentenced to four months imprisonment and after one month, he [President Mahama] has granted a reprieve not pardon...So the sentence has been reduced; What is wrong with it? President Kufour granted pardon to hardened criminals. Some of them got out and ended up training young boys in armed robbery at Ashaiman. This was President Kufour's legacy when he left office in 2008...Recently, i heard the police stormed and arrested some persons managing an armed robbery academy in the area. I'm sure it is the remnant of what Kufour did."

He stressed that there is no mistake in granting pardon to the trio as some critics are arguing.

A statement issued and signed by the Minister of Communications, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, said the decision of the President to remit the sentences on compassionate grounds followed a petition submitted to him by the contemnors appealing to the President to exercise his prerogative of mercy.