Power FM Presenter Released After Serving Jail Term

Power FM presenter, Oheneba Boamah Bennie has been released after serving his fourteen (14) days prison sentence at the Nsawam Prisons for contempt of court.

He was dragged to the Accra High Court by the Attorney General after the broadcaster was captured on tape claiming that President Akufo-Addo had influenced eight judges including the Chief Justice, Kwasi Anin-Yeboah to rule in his favour in the case of the December 2020 polls.

After being found guilty, the court presided over by Justice Elfreda Dankyi also fined him an amount of GHS 3,000.

He was sentenced on February 8, 2021 and was released today, February 21, 2022.

Background (Source: Starfm)

The A-G dragged Bennie to court this year for contempt of court.

It was the case of the A-G that, after the declaration of President Akufo-Addo as the President-elect by the Electoral Commission (EC), 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 A-G makes a case that through his publication, 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 A-G 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 A-G, 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 A-G’s case added.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini