Accra-based Power FM presenter, Oheneba Boamah Bennie, has been jailed over his claims against President Nana Akufo-Addo and judges in the country.
He was handed a 14-day jail term on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, by the High Court in Accra after the Attorney General charged him with contempt.
The court, presided over by Justice Elfreda Dankyi, also fined the broadcaster an amount of GH¢3,000.
In her ruling, Justice Dankyi held that the Power FM presenter was guilty of the charge against him and that she was charitable with the sentence.
“I have been magnanimous,” the Justice stated when counsel for the Power FM presenter, Victor Kojoga Adawudu, prayed the court to be charitable.
Background
The Attorney General dragged Mr Bennie to court on December 2020 this year for contempt of court.
It was the case of the Attorney General that after the declaration of President Akufo-Addo as the President-elect by the Electoral Commission (EC), Mr Bennie allegedly published a video on his Facebook wall, claiming that President Akufo-Addo had met with eight justices of the Supreme Court, led by the Chief Justice, and had influenced them.
He claimed the President used the supposed meeting to influence the justices of the apex court to rule in his favour in the event of any election petition challenging his re-election as declared by the EC.
In the said video, he allegedly said Ghanaians would not allow the justices of the Supreme Court to destroy the country and urged the military to stage a coup d’etat.
Constitutional violation
The Attorney General makes a case that through his publication, Mr Bennie wants to tell the public that judges, including the justices of the apex court, decide cases not independently but by taking directives from the President.
Such an assertion, the Attorney General argued, if allowed to go unpunished, would amount to gross disrespect for the judiciary, which is a violation of the 1992 Constitution.
According to the Attorney General, Mr Bennie knew that there was a possibility of a challenge to the presidential election at the Supreme Court and, therefore, by poisoning the minds of the public against the court, he wanted to cause disaffection for the court.
“That the respondent’s disrespect for the Judiciary and the publication of false news intended to bring the Judiciary into disrepute makes him liable to be committed to prison in order to vindicate the undoubted authority of the Judiciary enshrined in Article 125 of the 1992 Constitution,” the affidavit in support of the Attorney General case added.
