[ 2016-08-23 ]

Mahama has set unecessary precedent with Montie pardon – Ndebugri
A private legal practitioner, John Ndebugri has
suggested that President John Dramani Mahama’s
decision to pardon the Montie trio might put
pressure on successive governments to pardon
persons who commit similar offences in future.

President Mahama pardoned Alistair Nelson, Godwin
Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, one month
into their four-month jail term on Monday
‘compassionate grounds’

Although he stated that the president had acted
within the provisions of the constitution,
Ndebugri added that the pardon had set an
unnecessary precedent, given the short length of
the sentence given to the three, of which they had
already served a month.

“As far as the legal and constitutional aspects
of the action are concerned, I will not say that
he acted improperly, especially as he has
consulted with the Council of State. I have my
doubts whether politically it has been correct for
him to take the action he has taken. He has set a
precedent, two of them in fact, and the future is
unpredictable in that respect,”John Ndebugri
said on Eyewitness News.

“The sentences were short; four months and
they’ve already done one month, three months
will soon come and they would have been out
naturally.
Once he [Mahama] has done this, in future, people
who commit offences of that nature and are
punished in the same manner, and plead with the
president, it would appear that president would be
duty-bound to give some consideration to the
plea.”

NDC set precedent as well

The president had been under pressure to pardon
the three, after two separate petitions were
presented to him, endorsed by some Ministers of
State and senior members of his party, the
National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Education Minister, Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang,
deputy Education Minister Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa,
the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative
Arts, Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare, Minister for Gender,
Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur
and Foreign Affairs Minister, Hanna Tetteh all
endorsed the petition.

Other Ministers including Trade Minister, Ekow
Spio Garbrah and Transport Minister, Fiifi Kwetey
have visited the trio in jail.

Ndebugri believes, the public pressure put on the
president by members of his own party to pardon
the three had also set a precedent for similar
future offences.

He suggested that ‘it is incumbent’ on the
governing party to provide as much support for
offenders from other parties as they did for the
trio.

“The first precedent is the one set by the NDC.
Tomorrow if somebody from the NPP or the CPP or
any other party other than the NDC does anything
similar to what these three did, it is incumbent
on the NDC as a political organisation to open a
book for people to go and sign so that such a
person or persons are given compassionate
consideration by the president, whoever that
president would be at the time,” he said.

“They should have kept quiet, gone behind the
scenes and got the contemnors themselves to mount
the pleas for clemency. It wasn’t for them as an
organization to go out there as they did.”

Source - citifmonline.com

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