The embattled Montie FM afternoon political programme host and two members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Communication Team, who have been on the public spotlight for threatening the lives of judges on a live radio show, have dared the courts to order their arrests and jail them.
On June 23, 2016 – the day the Supreme Court justices ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to submit the list of NHIS card holders whose names were in the voter register – Salifu Maase, popularly called Mugabe, and his panellists threw caution to the wind and lambasted the justices on the show, after which they dared the judges to arrest them.
It was Mugabe, the host of the political talk show called ‘Pampaso’ on Montie FM, a pro-NDC radio network and sister station of Radio Gold at Laterbiokoshie, Accra, who first threw the challenge to the judges.
The panellists, including Alistair Tairo Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn, both NDC activists, openly threatened the lives of the judges when they said they would chase them to their houses.
They have since been cited for contempt of court, with the Supreme Court summoning them and the radio owners to appear before the justices.
While Ako Gunn preferred to run down Justices Sule Gbadegbe, Jones V. Dotse and Chief Justice (CJ) Georgina Wood, Alistair promised that somebody called Nash of Mataheko was ready to ‘marry’ the Chief Justice when war broke out. It’s not clear why Nash would want to marry the Chief Justice, knowing full well that the CJ is happily married.
CJ As President
Mugabe specifically accused the CJ of using the Supreme Court to usurp the work of the EC so that there could be power vacuum to enable her to become President of Ghana. He then roared on air, “They should come and arrest all of us and jail us.”
He also said the Chief Justice wanted to set the country on fire.
“Ei, and so now it is the Supreme Court that is… Ei then they should take the work to the Supreme Court for them to do it themselves. They should take the register to Georgina Wood for her to do the work herself. She wants to set fire in the country,” Mugabe said.
Cocaine Scandal
Alistair said he had always insisted that the Chief Justice should be removed because she got embroiled in a cocaine scandal, and accused her of trying to ‘pour oxygen’ in the fire by directing the EC on what to do.
“If you bring trouble, Justice Georgina Wood, Nash says I should tell you he’s at Mataheko; he says I should tell you, Georgina, that if you let war break out in this country, he will marry you,” he said boastfully, repeating, “During war, he will marry you for you to see. You think you are comfortable. As leaders, you get rewards and benefits and your position is secure.
“Today you want to sit there and use your left hands [referring to the judges] to point at things to destroy this nation. We know your homes. Mugabe, the High Court judges, I can stand at one junction and tell you where all of them live or most of the influential ones live. And so their homes are not far-fetched.”
Fallacious Positions
Ako Gunn described some of the positions taken by the judges at the Supreme Court regarding the orders to the EC on the voter register as ‘fallacies.’
“Look, three fallacies took place yesterday. They said from Justice Sule Gbadegbe, he said ‘EC, we will not sit down for EC to plunge this country into chaos’ and if you wouldn’t sit down, what have you been doing? What interest do you have in it?” he queried.
“He added something else: ‘there is too much tension in this country.’ Who determines the tension? Is it the Supreme Court?
“You sit there, and then you come out and say anything. It means that as you sit there, you are itching that there is tension so what shows that you aren’t the ones who are stoking the fires that Abu Ramadan should be allowed to come back? How do you determine that there is tension? And everybody said that this case is a clear case. So what is your problem again?
“Err, Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, another fallacious statement that she made.
“You see, Mugabe, that is why I am telling you that if someone has to travel, the person should wait till next week. Supreme Court, we are waiting for what they will say. Because you want to know how they will clean it. Who are you? Since when did Supreme Court direct EC? If Theodora Wood is going on pension, she should go. Else she should come to President Mahama with a letter,” Ako Gunn articulated.
Montie FM Begs
Meanwhile, following the contempt charge slapped on the radio station, management of Montie FM has banned the two panellists who threatened to eliminate the justices of the Supreme Court until further notice.
The radio station, in a statement signed by its General Manager, Mutala Mohammed, also apologised to the Chief Justice and justices of the Supreme Court over the seemingly incendiary comments.
“The management of Montie FM wishes to render its sincerest apologies to Her Ladyship the Chief Justice, Justices of the Supreme Court and the Bench in general, for the use of its platform by certain panellists recently to make statements that appear to threaten the safety of the Supreme Court Bench.
“Management condemns absolutely the said statements which it considers regrettable and dissociates itself from those statements,” management said.
By William Yaw Owusu