Atik Mohammed has waded into discussions regarding the jailing of the three Montie FM contempt culprits, stressing that their sentence should have been extended.
The PNC General Secretary stated emphatically that the comments which were made by the culprits could potentially cause mayhem in the country like the Rwandan genocide and so to him, they should remain in prison till after the 2016 elections.
“Did they commit a crime? Yes! Was the crime deserving of the punishment meted out to them? If the answer is yes, what is this waste of time and misplacing of our energies on useless things…For me, the term or sentence given them should have even been extended. They should come after elections.”
Atik Mohammed further lambasted the Ministers who have signed a petition book to implore President John Dramani Mahama to grant amnesty to the three convicts; Salifu Maase alias Mugabe, Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako-Gunn.
To Atik, the petition is the "worst thing that could ever happen to any country.”
“The Judges of your highest court are being threatened. They’ve taken a decision on these culprits and you have Ministers who are already not performing, the various Ministers who have signed; go to their Ministries and see their performance.
"The economy is already crippling. Instead of you to concentrate your energies, the little left of it on making sure that the little left; at least you can manage till you’re unseated; you're going about with petition that the President should exercise his prerogative of mercy on these culprits. People who have admitted that they indeed offended…I’ve come to one conclusion that when you’re a Minister and you don’t have any work to do, these are the kinds of things you get engaged in," he stated categorically.
Atik Mohammed asked the petitioners to allow the laws of the country to take its course on offenders and stop intruding in the affairs of the judiciary.
“Once you offend the law, the law must be allowed to deal with you. And that is precisely what we’re seeing. The law is dealing with them. It’s not about an individual saying I dislike the face of Mugabe or any of the other two and so I have imprisoned them. No! They offended the law and the law has taken its full course on them. Period!” he ended.