Milimani resident judge Ben Mark Ekhubi on Friday stopped decision whether Pastor Ezekiel Odero’s accounts will be opened, awaiting Mombasa High Court’s decision on the matter.
Ekhubi stopped reading his decision after lawyers Danstan Omari, Sam Nyaberi and Cliff Ombeta urged him to wait for the decision to be read by Judge Olga Sewe.
“After questioning the issue of account opening, we have advised Pastor Odero, we have reached a decision not to stop reading your decision until the High Court of Mombasa reads its decision regarding the opening of Pastor Odero’s accounts,” Nyaberi told Ekhubi.
The Pastor’s accounts were closed by the police who are investigating him for committing the crime of providing radical training to his followers, murder and money laundering.
On Thursday, the Director of Public Prosecutions opposed the case filed by Pastor Odero asking for his accounts to be opened, saying that more than 3,000 students sponsored by his church are suffering.
Mr Ekhubi said the high court has jurisdiction over magistrates’ courts and “it is wise to wait for the instructions of the high court.”
Omari and Ombeta accused the Director of Criminal Investigation DCI and the Inspector General of Police Japheth Koome for closing the accounts of the Church and the Pastor.
Judge Olga Sewe of the High Court of Mombasa, who last week ordered the service at Pastor Ezekiel’s church to continue, will decide on May 17, 2023 if those accounts will be opened.
The pastor was arrested after Pastor Paul Mackenzie was arrested and detained by the police investigating the murder of people buried in the 850-acre Shakahola forest.
