Mzbel Dodges Media

Journalists who thronged the Accra Motor Court yesterday to cover the trial of Nana Akua Amoah aka Mzbel, a hip life musician, were disappointed, as she did not turn up. This was because the matter, which was adjourned to yesterday by the magistrate court the first day Mzbel appeared before it, happened to have been heard on Thursday, June 9. A number of journalists, especially television crew and cameramen, arrived at the court as early as 8:30am to capture shots of Mzbel whose case has become the talk of town. However, when after two hours the accused persons, their lawyers and the trial judge had not arrived, the journalists tried to inquire about what was happening. Through the enquiry, they were informed that the case was called on Thursday and adjourned to August 15. Anthony Namoo, one of the lawyers, confirmed this and explained that on Monday when Mzbel and her two accomplices- Maxwell Mensah, a driver, and Emmanuel Edem Nordzor, a student- were refused bail by Emmanuel Plange Brew, the Motor Court magistrate, they filed a written application for bail at both the magistrate court and the Human Rights Court. He said the registrar of the Motor Court fixed hearing for the motion on Thursday while the High Court registrar fixed Wednesday as its date to hear the motion. When the Human Rights Court granted the accused persons bail, they went back on Thursday to inform the magistrate of the decision. Mr. Plange, he indicated, said he would be absent yesterday for the trial and subsequently adjourned the matter to August 15. Mzbel and the two others were released from police cells on Wednesday after sleeping there for three days for allegedly assaulting a police officer. This was after their lawyer, Anthony Namoo, had applied for bail at the Human Rights Court on their behalf. The court presided over by Justice U.P. Dery granted each of them a GH�2,000 bail with a surety, after ruling that the Motor Court�s decision to incarcerate them was an unlawful exercise of its judicial discretion. Mzbel would face charges of assaulting a police officer and obstructing a police officer from performing his lawful duties. Mensah had four of the charges which were unauthorized parking, causing road obstruction, resisting arrest and assault of police officer, while Nordzor was charged with driving a motor vehicle without licence. They have all pleaded not guilty. Facts, as narrated by the prosecutor, were that on Saturday at about 12:30pm, a police MTTU officer on duty at the Tudu traffic light in Accra realized there was heavy traffic on a section of the road which obstructed the free flow of vehicles. The officer, in his attempt to identify the cause, realized it was caused by a Mitsubishi 4�4 vehicle with registration number GR9470-11, driven by one Emmanuel Nordzor and subsequently requested to see his licence. After the cop�s inquiry, Emmanuel hurriedly left the driver�s seat and handed the vehicle over to Maxwell Mensah who rudely asked the policeman to clear off from the road for them to pass. But the policeman, who was not deterred by his conduct, insisted on seeing the licence of Emmanuel. Maxwell then ignored his request, started the engine and hit the cop who fell on the bonnet of the vehicle while he drove off, regardless of what happened to him. They then drove for a distance, with the policeman still clung dangerously to the bonnet while eyewitnesses screamed at the horror of what was happening It took a private security van, with a policeman on board, to block the Mitsubishi on the main road to ensure they did not escape. When the vehicle eventually stopped, Mzbel allegedly got out of the Mitsubishi and yelled at the cop, claiming he had no right to cross their path. She allegedly got physical and held the uniformed policeman by the neck in an attempt to strangle him while pushing a clenched fist in his face but onlookers rushed to the rescue of the policeman. However, their lawyers alleged that it was the policeman who rather unleashed all sorts of brutalities on the accused persons and that at the right time, they would produce video recordings to support their claim.