Oti Bless has not shown remorse; he must be jailed - Franklin Cudjoe

The President of policy think-tank, IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe is demanding the incarceration of the deputy Local Government Ministerial nominee John Oti Bless over derogatory comments he made about the Chief Justice and other Supreme Court judges.

According to him, Oti Bless has not shown remorse for his comments in spite of an apology he rendered over the matter.

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“I wish to sincerely state that I am really sorry for everything that has happened. Let me use this opportunity to render an unqualified apology to the Chief Justice who is my mother and the entire Judiciary, judges, Parliament, good people of Ghana and my constituents,” he told Accra-based Citi FM.

His apology came on the back of a directive by the Speaker of Parliament for deliberations over his nomination to be put on hold until he apologised for the comments he made.

But Franklin Cudjoe believes the deputy minister-designate only apologised because he was forced to.

“I suspect the Chief Justice, listening to this mockery of an apology, would be wondering what exactly came over him. He’s suggesting that he was ordered to apologise,” Franklin Cudjoe said on Accra-based Citi FM.

“If he isn’t jailed, then we should take out the Montie three. The Montie gang of bandits did the same thing on the same platform and also apologized.

“I don’t wish evil for anybody but we have to make examples of people who supposedly are representing us. Oti Bless must be jailed. Oti Bless has not shown any remorse as far as I am concerned. He is saying that he was directed or advised [to apologise] so he himself doesn’t believe it," he said.

“He must be jailed otherwise the Montie three may have to be given some pardon,” the president of IMANI added.

Background

Parliament on Thursday suspended the approval of the Deputy Local Government Ministerial nominee John Oti Bless.

Oti Bless was hoping to be approved by the House to enable him to begin his role as deputy minister within five months to go into the December polls.

The Minority in Parliament had earlier initiated a process to stop the appointment of John Bless Oti as a Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development after a revelation that he was part of the Montie FM panel on the day contemptuous statements were made about the Supreme Court.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Nkwanta North was cleared by Parliament’s Appointment Committee to be approved by the house as a deputy minister.

But his approval was deferred after Joe Osei-Owusu raised the issue in the house accusing Oti Bless of being part of the panellists that made contemptuous comments against Justices of the Supreme Court on Accra-based Montie FM.