Following the emergence of audio evidence of the MP for Nkwanta North, John Bless Oti, verbally attacking the Chief Justice, the President of IMANI, Frankiln Cudjoe has likened the MP’s comments to the infamous ‘Hate Radio’ which ushered in the Rwandan genocide.
“Listening that man [Oti Bless] on radio was worse than what was said in Rwanda,” Mr. Cudjoe said on Citi FM’s News Analysis programme, The Big Issue.
[contextly_sidebar id=”pdHGOvmIn3ctGcST1tlIfqFvKHGsNO4f”]Mr. Oti, who is the Deputy Minister designate for Local Government, can be heard verbally attacking the Supreme Court on the same Montie FM ‘Pampaso’ programme, that saw the host of the show and two panelists imprisoned for contempt.
Mr. Oti is on record accusing the Chief Justice of “conniving” with the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in an attempt to reverse the election results in 2008 and in 2012 among other allegations.
“I am surprised the Chief Justice isn’t suing him by now,” the IMANI President said in response to this development. “The unsavoury comments, the calumny, the vain glorification of treachery that was meted out to the Chief Justice – I am shocked.”
“Go to their houses and maim them. Look for them anywhere they are. They are cockroaches fish them out.’ Mr. Cudjoe noted as some genocidal propaganda that marked the airwaves of Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLMC) in Rwanda adding, “these were worse comments than what happened in Rwanda.”
‘Free speech gone to madness’
Mr. Cudjoe also described as nonsensical the attempts to defend the Montie three with claims their right to free speech was being attacked.
The three; Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn, together with the host of the ‘Pampaso’ political show, Maase Salifu, a.k.a Mugabe, threatened to eliminate justices of the Supreme Court over their handling of the lawsuit on the credibility of the country’s voters’ register.
Their incarceration has been met with calls for their release with a petition being started to get President Mahama to pardon the three. Other have called their four month sentence an attack on free speech.
But Mr. Cudjoe retorted that, “to actually threaten the life of a fellow human being is one explanation of free speech gone to madness. I don’t think anybody who talks about free speech in this instance is actually normal.”
He further indicated that convicted persons comments on the show ostensibly “fell short of saying go and kill them [the Justices], go and rape them.”
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana