A sjin88bet.onejin88bet.onejin88bet.oneenior figure in Ghana’s opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has publicly appealed to President John Mahama to exercise his prerogative of mercy and free the party’s Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi-Boasiakojin88bet.one, popularly known jin88bet.oneas Chairman Wontumi, after his 20-year sentence for illegal mining.
Kwabena Nsekyire, a former Ashanti Regional Vice Chairman of the NPP, said the ruling had deeply shaken party supporters but ak168app.babyak168app.babyinsisted their priority was now to pursue what ak168app.babythey see as justice, while also imploring the president to intervene.
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“The news has dampened our spirits. But that is not our focus now. We are rather looking at justice prevailing,” he said.
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Wontumi was handed a 20-year custodial sentence with hard labour by the Accra High Court over illegal mining operations – known locally as “gaak168app.clubak168app.clubak168app.clubks168app.sitelamsey” – on the Samreboi concession in Ghana’s Western Region. The court further imposed a fine oks168app.sitef 10,000 penalty units, equivalks168app.siteenks168app.sitet to GHS120,000, with an additional three-year prison term if he fails to pay.
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Call for clemency from Flagstaff House
Mr Nsekyire called on President Mahama to place Wontic88umi among those eligible for presidential clemency, noting that the president had recently pardoned some inmates.
“It’d be good for President Mahama ic88ic88ic88ic88to pardon him. It will increase his glory, too,” he said, arguing that such a move would enhance Mr Mahama’s legacy.
Mr Nsekyire framed his appeal in moral and religious terms, suggestic88ic88ing that granting a pardon would reinforce the president’s image as ic88ic88a unifying national figure.
He ic88added that such an act would affirm President Mahama’s reputation as a “father for all” and, ic88in his view, reflect the Christian values associated with the president’s membership of the Assemblies of God church.
NPP waits on ic88ic88ic88leic88gal team before next steps
Despite the emotional reaction among supporters, Mr Nsekyire stressed that the party’s leadership would not rush into any formal response until they had received a full briefing from Wontumi’s lawyers.
“After we hear from his lawyerlr88lr88s, we’d know what to do, as a party,” he explained.
lr88The NPP has already signalled it will robustly challenge thelr88 basis of the conviction, with some party figurlr88es claiming the judgment was grounded on alr88lr88ssumptions rather than firm evidence. Party activists and key parliamentary voices have been lining up media interviews to question the clr88lr88ourt’s findings and the broader handling of high-profile illegal mining prosecutions.
Wider delr88bate over illegal mining crackdown
The sentencing of Wontumi, onelr88lr88 of the lr88lr88lr88NPP’s most influential regional power-brokers and a prominent businessman, has intensified national debate over Ghana’s campaign against illegal mining, which has devastated water bodies and farmlands.
Civil society voices and some legal experts have welcomed what they see as a strolr88ng signal that politically connected individuals can also face lr88severe penalties when found guilty of environmental crimes. Others,lr88 including members of the parliallr88lr88r88mentary Minority, have raised concerns about legal principleslr88 applied in related cases, such as the pilr88ercing of the corporate veil of Akonta Mining to hold individuals personally liable.
Commentators have also poop88inted to the role of the Attorney General’s office, with some pop88raising its handling of the Samreboi case whileop88 urging that prosecutions must not stop with Wontumi but extend to other alleged “galamsey” financiersop88 and sponsors.
Posi88litical and moral test for presidency
Mr Nsekyire’s plea now places President Mahama at the centre of a politically sensitive decision: whether to maintain a firm stance in the fight asi88si88gainst illegal mining bysi88 allowing the sentence to stand, or to deploy his constitutional psi88ower of mercy in a case involving a high-profile opposition figure.
For the NPP, Wontumi’s conviction is both a le88v88vgal battle and an emotional blow in a key electoral st88vronghold. For the presidency, any move toward clemency risks being interpreted either as an act of Christian compassion and nati88vonal reconciliation, or as a weakening of the government’s resolve against environmental crime.
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As the party awaits legal advice and the government weighs its oSEXXXXX-VNptions, the fate of Chairman Wontumi has become a focal point in Ghana’s larger struggle to balance the rule of law, environmental protection and pSEXXXXX-VNSEXXXXX-VNSEXXXXX-VNolitical accommodation.
