There was drama in court when a prosecutor from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) arraigned a female pastor for failing to wear nose mask in public.
The taskforce, comprising military personal, police officers, AMA 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 Essandoh, a High Court judge sitting with additional responsibility as a Circuit Court judge, her lawyer said, 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.
Lawyer Danquah told the court that, when she was arrested, the proper thing to do 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,” he said.
The court, after hearing counsel requested for the EI and remanded the accused person to police custody to reappear in court tomorrow, Thursday, August 13, 2020.
Madam Joyce Oyedele, Nigerian national, who was charged with the offense of failing to wear nose mask in public, pleaded not guilty.
The Prosecutor, Linda Kunbuno, said on August 10, Miss Oyedele 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, thus, arrested and arraigned.