The Ministers and Deputy Ministers who signed the petition to have the Montie 3 freed did so to save their own skin, Acting General Secretary of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. John Boadu, has said.

“It is not out of objectivity or out of their belief that these people must be [freed], but it’s because they must stand up to be counted, other than that they will be flushed out of their political party…by their supporters,” Mr. Boadu told Prince Minkah on the Executive Breakfast Show on Class91.3FM on Wednesday August 3.

The three convicts: Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, are serving a four-month jail term for contempt. They were hauled before the Supreme Court for scandalising the apex court and also bringing its name into disrepute after threatening to kill justices of the bench.

Following their sentencing, supporters of the governing National Democratic Congress, ministers, deputy ministers, groups, friends, and family have mounted pressure on President John Mahama to grant them pardon by invoking his prerogative of mercy powers under Article 72 of the 1992 Constitution.

Some of the prominent names to have signed the petition include Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister Nana Oye Lithur, Tourism Minister Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, Minister of Education Prof Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, Deputy Education Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Petroleum Minister Benjamin Dagadu, Deputy Minister of Communications Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Deputy Chief of Staff Valerie Sawyer, among others.

The petition was presented to the presidency on Tuesday August 2. Speaking specifically about Mrs. Lithur’s involvement in the petition, Mr. Boadu said: “… Can you imagine somebody like Hon. Oye Lithur, who has been championing the cause of women and the disadvantaged in our society, pleading that somebody who openly attacked women, the Chief Justice, openly attacking her, attacking her integrity, wishing her dead, then this person who is a gender advocate will walk into a station to sign a petition?”

Mr. Boadu wondered if Finance Minister Seth Terkper would also sign the petition since, according to him, Mr. Terkper has also been a victim of severe abuse on the Accra-based radio station. “Can you tell me whether Hon Terkper will go there, because he has been a subject of abuse on that station? Tell me whether Terkper will be there?
They’ve abused him, picked him up, dissected him, and insulted him properly.”