You can be jailed for disrupting a wedding – Lawyer

Aggrieved family members and individuals who storm wedding grounds to cause confusion because of their disaffection can be prosecuted and subsequently thrown behind bars, a private legal practitioner has revealed.

Kwabena Owusu Mensah has cautioned that the laws of the country frowns on such acts and culprits could be dealt with in accordance of the law as stipulated by the criminal code.

In Ghana, there have been instances where relations or former fiancés of would-be couple have stormed wedding grounds to disrupt proceedings on grounds they have not given their blessings to such marriages or raised some wild allegations against either party.

But the lawyer on Accra-based Adom Fm, indicated that no one has the right to halt or disrupt proceedings once they are in session, reiterating that offenders per the provisions in the country’s laws could be arrested and severely dealt with.

He argued that under the ‘Ordinance Law’ someone who has attained the age of marriage does not need the consent of anyone not even his/her parents before getting married.

“We have three types of marriages in the country- Customary, Ordinance and Mohamadan marriage- under the customary marriage the two families meet and do the necessary rituals before they accept the marriage and the Mohamadan is not diferent but under the ordinance [marriage] the couples have to be in court with two witnesses being their family members or not,” he explained.

Lawyer Kwabena Owusu Mensah however advised that there are laid down procedures through the courts aggrieved parties could adopt to annul such marriage rather than resorting to physical violence.