The District Magistrate Judge, Afia Densi Asare-Kyire, delivering the judgment against the accused person on a charge of offensive conduct conducive to breach public peace yesterday, said the prosecution had proven beyond doubt the case against the accused person with both video and documentary evidence.

Facts

The facts of the case, as presented by Assistant State Attorney Kwabena Amponsah Asare, was that on April 20, 2021, the accused person Yussif AbdulGaniu (Nshola) without provocation was on live radio on Zuria FM and streaming live online on Facebook, used unprintable words against the CEO of Alpha Radio Sheikh Mohammed Ridwan, an Islamic Scholar and a philanthropist and the complainant in the case.

The accused person wrongly and mischievously accused the complainant of appropriating public and community property to himself and called Zango youth to rise, revolt and take back what belonged to them.

Again, on the same programme on Zuria FM, the accused person also instigated the Kumasi Muslim community against the complainant and called the Muslim communities to boycott the complainant’s radio station for allowing the preaching of all faiths on his radio station (Alpha Radio).

The court, after examining all the evidence adduced by both the prosecution and the defence counsel, rejected the plea by the accused person and fined him 500 penalty units equivalent to GH¢ 6000 or in default, serve a three-month prison term.

The journalist was also made to go to the same platform(air) to rescind his comment and also signed a bond to be of good behaviour at all times.

Gratification

“I am exonerated. This is all that I wanted the court to do for me”, Shiekh Ridwan told the Daily Graphic reporter in a brief interview after the court proceedings.

“My FM station is open to everyone… be it a Muslim or a Christian”, he said and that radio was rather a platform to bring people together and not a tool to tarnish people’s hard-earned reputation.

He said all he needed was for the public and most important the Muslim community in Kumasi to disregard the ill comments made against him as they had been condemned by a court of competent jurisdiction.

The two stations, Alpha Radio and Zuria 88.7 FM, reportedly had been engaging in unethical and unprofessional acts of casting altercations, insinuations and innuendoes on each other’s programmes on the airwaves, intending to settle a personal vendetta.

The directive followed a meeting held between the parties to address pertinent issues the NMC deemed to have breached the ethics of the profession.

Meeting

In a statement signed by the Deputy Executive Secretary of the NMC, Alexander Bannerman, and issued yesterday, the NMC directed Zuria FM and its management to apologise for any misconceptions or miscommunication from the interview with one Sheikh Abubakari that gave the impression that Islam could not tolerate any other religion, particularly Christianity.

The meeting followed a complaint made by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Alpha Radio, Sheikh Mohammed Ridwan Mohammed, against the General Manager of Zuria 88.7 FM, Yussif Abdul Ganiyu, over personal attacks, religious bigotry and incitement of Muslims against Christians.

Zuria 88.7

Mr Ganiyu, the statement disclosed, reportedly accused Sheikh Mohammed of opening his facilities to Christians, an act which, in his (Ganiyu’s) opinion, had the potential of converting Muslims to Christianity, but Mr Ganiyu denied the accusation and described it as baseless.

“At a hearing in Kumasi on Tuesday, October 11, 2022, it emerged that there were deep-seated sentiments against the two personalities involved, which had influence on their programmes, such that they are turned into personal vendetta and uninformed judgements,” it said.

“According to one of the parties, there was a programme in which a well-known Islamic scholar phoned in and was interviewed and he said that any Muslim who allowed his or her facility to be used to propagate any religious faith apart from Islam had committed sacrilege.

Alpha Radio

“That comment Alpha Radio considers to be in bad taste due to the level of religious pluralism in the country and in particular the remarkable demonstration of religious tolerance by the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Nuhu Sharabutu, and the Vice-President, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia,” the statement indicated.

Explaining what transpired on the said occasion, it indicated that Zuria FM said “it was a question from a listener as to the fate of Muslims who do not drink alcohol but transport alcohol, those who do not eat pork but drink pork soup, as well as those who lease their facilities to people who propagate other religious faiths which prompted the response from Sheikh Abubakari”.

Zuria FM further explained that immediately after the programme, they drew Sheikh Abubakari’s attention to the fact that there were instances of the Holy Prophet Mohammed providing space in mosques for Christians to pray and encouraging Muslims to seek comfort from their Christian brothers whenever they were in distress or difficulty.

Apology

The NMC, however, observed that the part prompting Sheikh Abubakari to his utterance should have been on air for listeners to hear it and, therefore, ordered the radio station to offer an apology to the public for that misconception.

The commission further ruled that both stations should cease the incessant attacks on each other, act professionally and stop propagating hate to their listeners, as well as the community in which they operated.