General News of Tuesday, 6 September 2016

Source: starrfmonline.com

I pardoned Montie 3 in Ghana’s interest – Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama President John Dramani Mahama

President John Mahama has said he followed the law to the latter in granting remission to the Montie three.

According to him, he consulted the Council of State as directed by the constitution before coming to the decision to set them free.

"I think that the overriding consideration must be that all arms of government must act constitutionally, I swore an oath on the 7th of January 2013 to abide by the constitution and so every action I take must be in consonance with the constitution.

"The young men were called before the Supreme Court for contempt and even before they were called before the court, they apologised and shown remorse, before the court also, they apologised. They asked for mitigation before the court, retracted and even after they were sent to jail they apologised again.

“....I don’t know what interest it will serve anyone the three extra months they would have served there. I did exactly what the Constitution wanted me to do. I consulted the Council of State, and they recommended that I activated my powers under Article 72, and that is what I did. And so I think that I acted in the interest of the state,” the president told Paul Adom Okyere on Good Evening Ghana on Metro TV Tuesday.

Alistair Nelson, Montie FM presenter Salifu Maase also known as Mugabe and Godwin Ako Gunn, were jailed by the Supreme Court for contempt after they heard them scandalising judges on radio.

Mr. Mahama granted them remission after serving just one month of the four-month jail term slapped on them.