Mzbel, two others remanded

The Motor Court in Accra on Monday remanded into police custody Nana Ekua Amoah aka Mzbel, a renowned musician and two others for allegedly assaulting and obstructing a police officer from executing his duty.

Mzbel, Maxwell Mensah, a driver and Emmanuel Edem Nordzor, a student have pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them.

They would re-appear on June 10.

Mzbel is being held for allegedly assaulting a police officer and obstructing him from executing his lawful duty.

Mensah was charged for unauthorised parking, causing road obstruction, resisting lawful arrest and assaulting one Lumorvi Wonder, a police officer.

Nordzor was charged for driving without a driving licence and obstructing a police officer from executing his duty.

The three lawyers, who represented the accused persons, prayed the court to admit their clients to bail since they were ready to attend to court all the time.

They said their clients had fixed places of abode, would not abscond from the court’s jurisdiction and were ready to assist the police in their investigations.

Police Chief Inspector Dora Seiwaa, prosecuting, challenged the bail application saying the accused persons might not appear to stand trial.

The court presided over by Mr Emmanuel Plange-Rhule was told that at about 1230 hours on Saturday, June 4, the three accused persons were on board a Mitsubishi 4x4 vehicle with registration number GR 9470-11 along the Kinbu Road.

Chief Inspector Seiwaa said Mensah who was driving the vehicle got to a spot at Tudu, parked the vehicle on the shoulder of the road while Nordzor and Mzbel sat in the vehicle.

She said the act of Mensah impeded the flow of traffic and the policeman on duty traced the source of the blockade and found Nordzor sitting behind the steering wheel with the ignition on.

The prosecutor said when Nordzor was quizzed by the Policeman, Lumorvi Wonder, why he parked the vehicle there, he replied that he was waiting for his friend.

Policeman Wonder, therefore asked Nordzor to move the vehicle away to give way to other road users but the manner in which Nordzor drove the vehicle gave him the cause to suspect Nordzor of not possessing a driving licence, and demanded his driving licence but Nordzor could not produce one.

The prosecutor said during the interrogation, Mensah emerged and asked Policeman Wonder, to “clear off” because he (Mensah) was the driver and would move the vehicle.

She said subsequently Mensah reversed and moved the vehicle towards policeman Wonder, hitting his legs and as a result Wonder fell on the bonnet.

Chief Inspector Seiwaa said Mensah failed to stop despite shouts by bystanders and in his bid to throw policeman Wonder off drove in a zigzag manner while he held firmly on to the windscreen wipers.

She said a bullion van which was trailing the accused persons quickly overtook them and crossed them at a spot near the Kinbu School where Mensah and Nordzor were overpowered and arrested.

The prosecutor said Mzbel who claimed ownership of the vehicle did not understand why her friends were being arrested and prevented the action.

She said in the process, Mzbel jumped onto one of the officers, Albert Drakpor, and held his uniform pinned to his neck but was rescued by his colleagues.

The prosecutor said with the timely intervention of two armed police officers, the accused persons were whisked away and after investigations charged with the various offences.