GIBA council member condemns death threat on judges

Death threats issued at Supreme Court judges by some panellists on Accra-based Montie FM should be condemned in no uncertain terms, George Foster Baffour, Executive Council Member of the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) has said.

According to him, given that the country is in one of its sensitive years, as far as election 2016 is concerned, such comments should not be countenanced by the media and the general public in any way.

Two individuals, Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn are reported to have made the death threats during a discussion.

The two were panellists on ‘Pampaso’, a political programme on the station on June 29. They warned judges of Ghana’s highest court to be wary of their conduct in the case involving the Electoral Commission and Mr Abu Ramadan if they did not want to suffer the fate of the three members of the bench who were shot to death and burnt on June 30, 1982 in the era of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).

Mr Nelson has communicated his apologies for those comments but Mr Gunn has denied ever being in the studios of the station on the day that the alleged threats were issued.

But speaking in his capacity as an individual in an interview with Prince Minkah, host of the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class 91.3 FM on Monday July 4, Mr Foster Baffour said such comments could get people “very agitated.”

He added: “But that notwithstanding, I believe that as the people of Ghana and much more importantly in a very sensitive year like we have as far as the 2016 election is concerned, we should be very circumspect as to what we come out with, especially when we are on air”.

“What sometimes is a little bit saddening is the fact that sometimes, we don’t have the facts, we don’t know what the truth is and sometimes we get a little too sentimental and a little too emotional at the path of the political divide that we belong to, and I think that whichever way it is, we should condemn this in no uncertain terms.”