Alternative Medicine Practitioner and Navrongo-based businessman Norbert Atodio who set tongues wagging by burying his father in a Toyota Corolla has been arrested, arraigned before the Navrongo District Magistrate Court and granted bail for defying orders of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Mr Atodio, having announced the unprecedented desire to bury his father in a vehicle, was promptly barred by the EPA and National Security from doing so due to the adverse effects such a burial poses to the environment. But a defiant Atodio, nonetheless, carried out the burial last month much to the admiration of many residents.
Now though he faces charges of essentially intentionally defying the EPA and polluting the environment willfully.
In Court on June 19, 2023, he pleaded not guilty and was granted bail to the tune of GHC 20, 000 with two sureties. He is due to reappear in court much later.
Background
Mr Atodio, who hails from Doba in the Kassena Nankana Municipality, became the talk of a time when it emerged last month that he had planned to bury his deceased father in a car instead of a coffin.
State agencies, including the National Security, the Kassena Nankana Municipal Assembly and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), moved in to halt the planned burial. But Mr Atodio reportedly ignored them all.
Under the cover of darkness, he did as planned – buried his father in a Toyota Corolla as coffin. He then allegedly went into hiding. But the authorities managed to track him down and arrest him.
Threatens Journalist
In the raging confusion, the businessman who owns Pure FM, a Navrongo-based community radio, reportedly threatened Senyalah Castro Cazo who is the Upper East Regional Correspondent of Asaase Radio.
The threat on live radio has since been reported to the Navrongo Municipal Command which is also investigating the matter.
According to the Journalist who confirmed the threat to MyNewsGh.com, the embattled businessman said he was going to deal with him for the bad press.