The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has questioned the decision of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to publicly suggest, via a press statement that two radio panellists, who threatened to eliminate Supreme Court judges, did so out of “needless bravado” and also lacked the capacity to carry out the threat.

Mr Alistair Nelson and Mr Godwin Ako Gunn, during a political talk show on Accra-based private station Montie FM, threatened to kill the justices in similar fashion as their forebears were, in 1982, during the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime, if they plunged the country into mayhem by dint of their ruling on a case that pended before them about the credibility of the register of voters.

The two panellists and host of the show on which the threats were issued have been summoned by the court to appear on Tuesday, July 12, to explain why they should not be imprisoned for contempt.

But even before they make that appearance, the BNI has described their threats as empty. “In arresting the two, the BNI took into consideration, the current volatile security situation in the country as we inch towards the 2016 elections.

At the interrogation, the two suspects admitted making those statements and acknowledged that their remarks were regrettable and unfortunate. Further checks by the BNI have, however, established that the suspects were incapable of carrying out pronouncements but did so in a show of needless bravado.”

However, speaking on Class 91.3FM’s current affairs programme Inside Politics on Thursday July 7, a Deputy Communications Director of the NPP, Mr Anthony Karbo, wondered why the bureau would jump the gun even before the two suspects appear before the justices of the Supreme Court.

Some pro-government commentators, as well as the lawyer for the two panellists, Chris Ackumey, have argued that Mr Gunn and Mr Nelson deserve to be freed just as the courts freed opposition lawmaker Kennedy Agyapong despite inciting Ashantis against Ewes and Gas in the lead-up to the 2012 elections and getting arrested and charged for treason.

“Kennedy Agyapong was arrested, sent to the same BNI, the BNI never came out to give us any explanation after their so-called interrogation. …They went ahead to hand him over to the Attorney General’s Department, who charged him for treason.

The same court found it completely unreasonable to charge [Mr Agyapong] for treason and freed him, so the two are not the same,” Mr Karbo distinguished, adding: “In this matter, why did the BNI decide to come out? Several people have been arrested [and] it has never been the practice of the BNI in the first place to explain so deeply.

What is so special about these two people to the extent that they are being held before court and even before the court listens to them, the BNI is telling us that it’s OK, Ghanaians should just forget about it? I don’t think that is how a professional body must work”, he stated.