Mahama should not grant Amnesty to Montie 3 - Dr. Amoako Baah

A Political Scientist Dr. Amoako Baah has suggested that granting presidential pardon to the convicted Montie three contemnors will create a constitutional crisis.

Some bigwigs and footsoldiers of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) are putting pressure on president John Dramani Mahama to grant the trio a presidential pardon.

But speaking on Ultimate breakfast show hosted by Lantam Papanko, he wondered why the president is being dragged into the issue.

‘Why should the president be involved in this, is Montie FM an arm of government, do they work for government, what is going on here,’ he asked.

He admits the president is in a fix but added that it is not a difficult decision to make, if he has good lawyers advising him not to do it.

‘If you allow your party supporters to persuade you into doing this, If he undo what the Justices have done, and allow the court itself to amend the sentence, you will have constitutional crisis. He should tell them that he cannot do that and the rule of law must prevail and that they are talking to the Justices behind closed doors to reduce the sentence.

‘If the president gives in and I hope he doesn’t, it creates a constitutional crisis, you see there are people who just read the constitution, they read a segment that support what they want, you cannot interpret the constitution that way, you have to look at all the issues in the constitution pertaining to that issue, Article 72 gives the president the pardon power… Fine I agree, but you come to Article 125, it says that the judicial powers of Ghana shall be vested in the judiciary accordingly, neither the president nor the parliament nor any organ or agency of the president or parliament shall have or be given final judicial power.

That is the problem, so it tells you that the president’s pardon power is not a judicial power. Its given to him to give people clemency. In this instance, if the president uses his power, it has directly undermine the authority of the court, that is the problem and so it won’t work,’ he explained.

The three contemnors Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn members of NDC and Salifu Maase alias Mugabe (Presenter) were on Wednesday jailed four months each by the Supreme Court.

The trio were found guilty of scandalizing the court, defying and lowering the authority of the Supreme Court and bringing it into disrepute.

The duo, Nelson and Gunn allegedly threatened to “violently silence” the Supreme Court judges if they made any judgment against the Electoral Commission (EC) in the court case that challenged the validity of the voters’ register as proof of citizenship.