Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang
Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has literally fled from the ‘bad mouths’ of the Montie 3 as she explains that she did not endorse their remarks on air, claiming her petition was based on clemency.
Now a political baggage on her back, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) running mate while fielding questions on varied subjects claimed she didn’t endorse the rape threats issued by three NDC hoodlums who were jailed by the Supreme Court when the party was in power.
She claimed her action was intended to appeal to the judges to be merciful with the convicts even though there was massive public condemnation over the rape threats towards the then Chief Justice.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang as Minister of Education joined many NDC women who signed a petition demanding the release of the three persons who had used harsh and uncomplimentary words against some members of the bench in 2016.
The petition was directed at the then President John Mahama who obliged the request and had the convicted persons released.
The public outcry over the release of the convicts was loud, with many wondering whether the President had not endorsed the harsh words used by the trio on the airwaves.
Her interview by a Central Region radio station offered her an opportunity to either clear herself of the ‘endorsement’ of Montie 3’s iniquity or even sink further in the moral filth.
“The case was not tampered with; the court process was allowed to continue to its conclusion. Those of us who listened to the comments, we told them their utterances were wrong and so they should go and apologize and so made them apologize until the sentencing came. And in the judicial process, there is something called pardon or clemency; even in recent times, they have pardoned a lot of people,” she said.
“So are they saying that if someone commits an offence and they are being taken away and they run to you to apologize on their behalf, as a mother, will you throw them away? Or that when you go and apologize on their behalf it means you endorse what they had done? No. If your child smashes the mirror of somebody’s car and you go and apologize does it mean you support what your child did? Mahama could have covered them, but he didn’t do so; he allowed the law to work. What do we see today?” she said.
The Genesis
Salifu Maase, aka Mugabe, and two of his panelists Godwin Ako Gunn and Alistair Nelson, while on a discussion programme on Montie FM threatened female judges, including the then Chief Justice, with rape. They were subsequently convicted of contempt and jailed.
Top NDC appointees petitioned the President to use his constitutional power of pardon to have the three persons released from prison which Mr. Mahama gleefully did.
By A.R. Gomda