Pastor who refused to wear nose mask granted GH¢10k bail

The Attorney General’s (AG) Department has requested for the docket on a female pastor, Joyce Oyedele, who was detained Wednesday by the Circuit in Accra after she was arraigned for refusing to wear a nose mask in public.

Her appearance in court stirred controversy when her lawyer Yaw Danquah challenged the locus of an AMA prosecutor handling the case.

The court presided over by Justice Emmanuel Essandoh, a High Court judge sitting with additional responsibility as a Circuit Court judge adjourned the case to today after requesting for the Executive Instrument (EI) relating to the matter.

In court on Thursday, the AMA prosecutor Madam Linda Kunbuno said she had informed the AMA Head of Legal Department of the development in court yesterday.

She told the court that the Head of Legal of AMA then consulted the AG’s department who requested for the docket.

She was however admitted to bail in the sum of GH¢10,000 with one surety in the person of one John Teye who is an Evangelist at Aburi.

Her lawyers offered her a box of disposable nose mask while the judge also offered her some money to buy the nose mask.

Pastor Oyedele told the court that said she is from Nigeria and had a relative in Ghana.

The case has been adjourned to September 2, 2020.

Drama

There was drama in court on Wednesday when a prosecutor from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) arraigned a female pastor for failing to wear nose mask in public.

The female itinerant pastor is said to have refused the directive of the COVID-19 taskforce when she was spotted in public.

The task force comprising of Military personal, police officers, Accra Metropolitan Assembly and Zoomlions officers were enforcing the President’s directive for wearing of nose mask as a means to curtail the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

However, when the case was called before Justice Emmanuel Essandod, a High Court judge sitting with additional responsibility as a Circuit Court judge, her lawyer says, AMA does not have the power to prosecute but the police.

Lawyer Yaw Danquah told the court that Executive Instruments (EI)64 Sections 1 and 4(1)(2), 2020 do not permit the AMA to prosecute.

He argued that, the EI does not empower AMA to prosecute and that it is rather for the police.

Lawyer Danquah told the court that, when she was arrested, the proper thing for the task force to have done was to hand her over to the police.

“When it comes to enforcement, the EI gives the police the power to conduct the random search, and AMA is not the police. It (EI) never mentions that the power is conferred on the traffic unit.

The court after hearing counsel requested for the EI and remanded the accused person to police custody to reappear in court on, Thursday, August 13, 2020.

Madam Joyce Oyedele, Nigerian national who was charged with the offence of failing to wear nose mask in public but pleaded not guilty.

The Prosecutor Linda Kunbuno said August 10, she was spotted again not wearing the nose mask instead she was using her handkerchief.

Madam Kunbuno said she was further advised to use the mask but she still refused even after someone had volunteered to buy her nose mask.

She was however arrested and arraigned.