Montie 3 should ask CJ for forgiveness - Imoro-Ayana

The Convention People’s Party (CPP) will not condone any form of utterances that will lead to chaos in the country and the party would have swiftly punished the Montie 3 had they been CPP members, a leading member of the party, Rhodaline Imoro-Ayana, has stated.

Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn, and Salifu Maase, aka Mugabe, who have become known as the Montie 3, were handed a four-month jail term by the Supreme Court for contempt on Wednesday, July 27. They threatened the lives of judges of the Supreme Court when they spoke on Accra-based radio station Montie FM.

Even though she believes no CPP member would make such statements, Imoro-Ayana said: “If any member of the CPP had been involved in those comments, we would have been the first to punish them because this country is one and everyone has a stake in it.”

Ms. Imoro-Ayana, who was a guest on Class FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Thursday, August 4, was of the view that the trio could have been incarcerated for up to three years so they should accept the four-month term handed them.

“For Maase and the other two, they should take it easy because, at the end of the day, you become a prison graduate for the cause you stand for (if it is a good one). There is dignity in there. They should go and ask Tsatsu and Abodakpi; they did not die. Politicians should not be afraid of prison,” she told host Prince Minkah.

The presidency has been inundated with several calls from both executives and supporters of the governing NDC as well as ministers and appointees of the presidency for a presidential pardon for the three, since, in their view, the sentence was “harsh”.

The pressure on the president to free the three has resulted in the formation of the #Freemontie3now movement with vigils held to press home the call for their release.

A petition book to solicit one million signatures in support of freeing the convicts was opened at Radio Gold. It was signed by some ministers and deputy ministers. The Ga Traditional Council on Monday, August 1, at a news conference, also joined the fray and pleaded with Mr. Mahama to show mercy.

The petition was officially presented to the Flagstaff House on Tuesday, August 2. Lawyers for the trio, who presented the petition, are confident that the president will take a decision on the matter "very soon".

For Ms. Imoro-Ayana, the president must not free the three who have already spent a week at the Nsawam Prisons. “I do not think it is an issue which the president will even say: ‘I am going to mitigate. If the president does that, then he is telling women in this country that they are nothing’” she noted.

She continued: “I do not expect the president to do anything. We have to be responsible and disciplined. We need to know what to say and when to say as media people or communicators.”

For her, instead of presenting a petition to the president, the contemnors should rather ask the Chief Justice and the other judges of the Supreme Court for forgiveness. “Why don’t they go on their knees and appeal to them? They should appeal to the Supreme Court judges, not the president,” she said.

Contrary to suggestions by a section of the public that the sentence was too harsh, she argued that it was not and should instead serve as a deterrent to others.

“In Rwanda, the word ‘cockroach’ was said on radio and we know what happened. Being on the radio does not mean you should be irresponsible and make utterances that are so inflammatory,” she added.