President John Agyekum Kufuor has ordered the release of 1,410 prisoners, who are deemed not to be a threat to society. The president's grant of amnesty to these prisoners comes as a sign of mercy and goodwill, in accordance with the July 1 commemoration of Republic Day. The authority for such action lies in Article 72 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana. Of the prisoners to be released, twenty-four have been deemed seriously ill by their respective Regional Medical Boards to pose any threat to the public. Two are first-time offenders over seventy years of age. One is a nursing mother who has been released to care for the child. The rest are first-time offenders who have served more than half of their sentence. The decision was made only after careful deliberation between President Kufuor, the Prisons Service Council and the Council of State, with the public interest as chief concern. Source: Ghanaian Times