The former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie says he is yet to come to terms with his near-prison experience during the hearing of the election petition.
Mr. Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Sir John, was hurled before the nine judges hearing the election petition case for contempt for comments he made about the president of the panel of judges, Justice William Atuguba.
He was fined GHC 5,000 failure of which he would have served a six-month prison term.
Sir John was also made to sign a bond to be of good behaviour.
Speaking to Citi News, the former NPP General Secretary alleged that other National Democratic Congress (NDC) communicators made equally contemptuous statements during the hearing of the case but they were left off the hook.
He recalled that several occurrences took place in the court room such as when “Tony Lithur threw the exhibit on the floor of the court which to my candid opinion, amounted to contempt, yet, the lordships did not see anything wrong with that.”
According to him, it was unfortunate that statement made outside the court regarding the case “for which the NDC wanted it to be punished were indeed punished.”
Sir John is convinced the NDC orchestrated his appearance before the judges saying there “were men and women who never listened to these radio stations…but this matter was brought to their attention because the NDC wanted Sir John to be punished.”
He expressed regret but was quick to add that “I am no longer going to brood over that but it was regrettable that more incidents of that nature did not get the attention of the lordships.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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