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The Attorney General (AG) has taken an Accra-based Power FM journalist to court following comments he made against some Supreme Court justices.
The Attorney General has asked the Accra High Court to jail Oheneba Boamah Bennie for making false claims against President-elect Akufo-Addo and 8 Supreme Court justices, including the Chief Justice.
“The forceful remarks of the defendant (Bennie) were absolutely false, as neither the Chief Justice nor any judge had been to Jubilee House or met anywhere with the President of Ghana following the declaration of the election results presidential.
The Attorney General further explained that the publication was “clearly intended to undermine public confidence in the judiciary and the administration of justice in Ghana in general, as well as the contempt and disaffection of the courts.”
This comes a few days after the journalist was arrested and released by the CID after the publication of a video on his Facebook wall.
In the video, Oheneba brought various accusations against President Akufo-Addo, including the claim that he had met with 8 Supreme Court justices, led by the Chief Justice, and had influenced them.
In the video posted on Facebook, Mr. Bennie stated that the president used the alleged meeting to influence the high court judges to rule in his favor should any electoral petition challenge his re-election as declared by the EC.
In addition, he claimed to have urged Ghanaians not to allow Supreme Court justices to destroy the country.
He also called on the military to stage a coup to register their dissatisfaction with the EC declaration of President Akufo-Addo as president-elect.
He was invited and later detained by the CID for the complaints, but was later released after the intervention of his lawyer, Francis Xavier Sosu.
Subsequently, he has now been brought to an Accra High Court for contempt of court on the grounds that the comment was aimed at causing the discontent of the Supreme Court.
The Attorney General in an affidavit to support the request for contempt stated that the comment is a compromise on the powers of the Supreme Court and the Judiciary as a whole, and further undermines the independence of the Judiciary in such a way that Mr. Bennie, through the publication has created the impression that the judiciary cannot act unless it has a directive from the presidency.
