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0 President and Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of a policy think tank, Imani Centre for Policy and Education, Franklin Cudjoe has asserted that President Akufo-Addo’s intervention to get WASSCE candidates who insulted him to continue to sit the examination is similar to the pardoning of some three National Democratic Congress (NDC) communicators( Montie 3) who had been jailed for contempt in 2016.
President Akufo-Addo has today directed stakeholders to allow some 14 students who had been barred from continuing to take the WASSCE for insulting him to be allowed to, at least, continue to sit their papers.
His move has been widely praised by many on social media.
For Mr Cudjoe, his action is similar to that of then-President John Mahama who had pardoned the Montie 3 after the Court had found them guilty of contempt.
In reacting to the President’s Directive in a post on Facebook, he said “I think the President did well by intervening to have the students who gravely insulted and abused his person pardoned to enable them to write exams at least. This is what responsible fathers do. It is no different from JM’s decision to show clemency to the vagabond Muntie 3 after thousands signed a petition for that outcome”
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Background of Montie 3
Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn, and Salifu Maase, all on a political talk show on Accra-based Montie FM got imprisoned on July 27, 2016, for having threatened, on radio, to kill some judges whose judgements were deemed unfavourable to the then governing NDC.
They had also pledged to rape the Chief Justice at the time, Mrs Georgina Theodora Wood.
They were hauled before the Supreme Court, found guilty of contempt and handed a three-month jail sentence.
This sparked widespread agitation from NDC supporters, demanding that they be set free by then President, John Dramani Mahama. The protestors had prominent NDC members, including then Education Minister, Prof Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang.
On August 22, 2016, President John Mahama remitted their three-month sentence. They had served only a little over three weeks in jail.
The President’s action at the time was widely condemned by the then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Source: MyNewsGh.com
