A petition book to put pressure on president Mahama to invoke Article 72 of the Constitution to pardon the jailed Monte 3 has been roundly condemned as unnecessary.

The petition book was opened by pro-government group Research and Advocacy Platform (RAP) to collect signatures of Ghanaians to implore the president to free Salifu Maase aka Mugabe, Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn.

The contempt proceedings came after the three threatened the Supreme Court judges who sat on the Abu Ramadan and Gary Nimako verses the Electoral Commission case.

They also threated to rape the Chief Justice.

Speaking on Joy FM’s news analysis programme newsfile on Saturday, July 30, 2016, veteran journalists Kwaku Baako described the petition as dragging the president into the mud, urging president John Mahama not to entertain the “potentially dangerous” invitation.

Lawyer Egbert Faibile Jnr  also derided the petitioners, including ministers of state who have signed the petition to put pressure on the president to pardon the trio.

He added that “It is very shameful that ministers of state have colluded with the petitioners to put pressure on the president."

Speaking on the same issue on newsfile Saturday, a law lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Clara Kasser-Tee, advised the petitioners to withdraw the petition.

Kasser-Tee argues that it is “most unfair” for anyone to petition the Presidents to pardon the trio.

“If you look at the effect of the perception and effect of it, is this what we really want? We should be mindful that we don’t want the arms of government to be antagonising, competing for each other to trying to show who is more powerful,” she added.

Earlier, Occupy Ghana said the president risks undermining the judiciary if he succumbs to the whims and caprices of the petitioners.