{"id":236738,"date":"2016-08-04T16:30:58","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T16:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=236738"},"modified":"2016-08-04T16:30:58","modified_gmt":"2016-08-04T16:30:58","slug":"chief-imams-spokesperson-speaks-out-against-montie-petition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=236738","title":{"rendered":"Chief Imam&#8217;s spokesperson speaks out against Montie petition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">An Islamic scholar and spokesperson to the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Aremeyaw Shaibu has waded into the controversy over a petition for a presidential pardon for the Montie Three, saying President Mahama must not grant any amnesty. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Speaking to<\/span><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"> Citi News<\/strong><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">, Sheikh Shaibu said that the President must remain principled to be a point of reference.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>His comment follows the decision of some Ministers of State and NDC loyalists to petition the President for a pardon for the Montie trio.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the President must save his integrity in matters of the law.<\/p>\n<p>He added that, the way people act with impunity concerning the freedom of speech \u201cneeds to be stopped\u201d since they tend to abuse it.<\/p>\n<p>Sheikh Aremeyaw Shaibu noted that \u201cI do not support the idea for a presidential pardon particularly to save the president\u2019s own integrity and his neutrality in matters of law\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He condemned the public for mounting \u201cpressure on the president to grant that amnesty to the people\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/sheikh-armiyawo-shaibu.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-236740\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/sheikh-armiyawo-shaibu-1024x640.jpg\" alt=\"sheikh-armiyawo-shaibu\" width=\"620\" height=\"388\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Background<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and\u00a0Salifu Maase, alias Mugabe, were <span style=\"color: #666699;\"><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/07\/27\/montie-panelists-mugabe-jailed-4-months\/\"><strong>sentenced to serve four months in jai<\/strong>l<\/a><\/span> after they were found guilty of contempt charges.<\/p>\n<p>The National Democratic Congress (NDC),condemned the four-month jail-term given to\u00a0the trio.<\/p>\n<p>The party\u2019s response came after the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hanna Tetteh, described the sentencing as harsh.<\/p>\n<p>Other ministers have also signed petition asking the president to use his prerogative of mercy to grant pardon to the convicted persons.<\/p>\n<p>The book, opened by a group known as the\u00a0Research and Advocacy Platform (RAP), has so far\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/07\/28\/valerie-sawyerr-others-sign-petition-book-to-free-montie-3\/\">garnered several signatures<\/a><\/strong> including those of high-profile government officials including the deputy minister of Education in charge of Tertiary, Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare and the Education Minister, Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang.<\/p>\n<p>However, the founder and flagbearer of the Progressive People\u2019s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, has signed the petition urging President John Mahama to respect the judgement of the Supreme Court against the Montie trio.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>By: Kuukua Buahin\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Islamic scholar and spokesperson to the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Aremeyaw Shaibu has waded into the controversy over a petition for a presidential pardon for the Montie Three, saying President Mahama must not grant any amnesty. Speaking to Citi News, Sheikh Shaibu said that the President must remain principled to be a point of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":234751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=236738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/234751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=236738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=236738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=236738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}