Power FM journalist, Oheneba Boama, has been sentenced to prison for contempt of court.
After being found guilty of contempt of court, Oheneba Boamah Bennie, a broadcast journalist with Accra’s Power FM, was sentenced to 14 days in prison.
The broadcaster was taken to the High Court after he was caught on video saying that President Nana Akufo-Addo met with eight judges, including Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, following the December 2020 elections.
In the context of an electoral petition, he accused President Akufo-Addo of attempting to persuade them.
Godfred Yeboah Dame, the Attorney General who lead the prosecution, said that the perpetrator should be punished in order to dissuade others from making unfounded charges.
Justice Elfreda Dankyi, the case’s presiding judge, ruled the suspect guilty and fined him GH3,000 in addition to the jail sentence since he was unable to adequately establish his allegation to the court.
The 36-year-old was found guilty of the charge against him by Justice Elfreda Dankyi.
When lead counsel for the journalist, Victor Kojoga Adawudu, prayed to the court to temper justice with mercy, she said, “I have been magnanimous.”
He’ll be held at the Nsawam Prisons for the duration of his sentence.
The Ghana Police Service’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) detained the Accra-based Power FM host on December 14, 2020, for threatening and abusing The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo.
Oheneba Boamah is claimed to have filmed a live video on his Facebook page in which he abused and threatened President.
He claimed that following the December 2020 elections, the President met with some judges, including Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah.
He claimed that this was an attempt by President Akufo-Addo to persuade judges in the event that the opposition candidate, John Mahama, decides to protest the election results in court.
He was charged for violating sections 207 and 208 (1) of the criminal and other crimes Act, Act 29/60, for offensive behavior conducive to breaches of the peace and dissemination of false news, respectively.
