Journalist Convicted for Inciteful Comments in Kumasi
Kumasi-based Zuria FM journalist, Yussif Abdul Ganiu, also known as "Nshola," has been found guilty by the Asokwa District Court for making inciteful comments likely to breach public peace.
A journalist with Kumasi-based Zuria FM, Yussif Abdul Ganiu, popularly known as “Nshola,” has been found guilty by the Asokwa District Court in Kumasi over inciteful comments he made that were likely to breach public peace.
The District Magistrate Judge, Afia Densi Asare-Kyire, delivering the judgment against the accused on a charge of offensive conduct conducive to breaching public peace, said the prosecution had proven the case beyond doubt with both video and documentary evidence.
Facts
The facts of the case, as presented by Assistant State Attorney Kwabena Amponsah Asare, indicated that on April 20, 2021, Yussif Abdul Ganiu (Nshola), without provocation, was on live radio on Zuria FM and streaming live online on Facebook, where he used unprintable words against the CEO of Alpha Radio, Sheikh Mohammed Ridwan, an Islamic Scholar and a philanthropist, who is also the complainant in the case.
The accused wrongfully and mischievously accused the complainant of appropriating public and community property for himself and called on Zango youth to rise, revolt, and reclaim what belonged to them. On the same program on Zuria FM, the accused also instigated the Kumasi Muslim community against the complainant and urged them to boycott the complainant's radio station for allowing the preaching of all faiths on his station, Alpha Radio.
The court, after examining all the evidence presented by both the prosecution and the defense counsel, rejected the plea by the accused and fined him 500 penalty units, equivalent to GH¢ 6000, or in default, a three-month prison term. The journalist was also made to go on the same platform to rescind his comments and signed a bond to maintain good behavior at all times.
Gratification
“I am exonerated. This is all that I wanted the court to do for me,” Sheikh 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, adding that radio should be a platform to bring people together and not a tool to tarnish people’s hard-earned reputations.
He emphasized that all he needed was for the public, especially the Muslim community in Kumasi, to disregard the ill co
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