A Catholic priest in the Elig-Mfomo parish in Yaounde has been suspended over the death of a girl who died due to a wrongly executed abortion.

The 28-year-old girl, Augustine Amenda who died on February 27 was an employee at a private school founded by the suspended priest. The priest, Emile Nkoa was principal of the school at the time and is being accused of being responsible for the death of the girl whose family members say he had been dating.

The family of the deceased have complained to the church hierarchy that it was the priest who encouraged the lady to carry out the abortion that led to her demise. They’re also claiming that the priest was dating the girl and that both had a sexual relationship.

The priest, Emile Nkoa, once accused of trading in human bones, reportedly denied the allegations and threatened to take the family to court. He claimed that the family simply wants to drag his name into the mud. He told the media that Amenda had never been his concubine and that he never encouraged her to abort her baby.

The priest also argued that the lady was a grown-up woman, and that he was not watching her moves and activities while she worked under him. Nkoa also claimed that it is only when she died that he knew that she had health problems.

The Bishop of the Obala diocese, Sosthene Bayemi, Nkoa’s immediate supervisor, said that he suspended the priest following a 1983 canonical code which states that a priest can be suspended by the Pope on behalf of the clergy or by bishops on behalf of the clerics under their jurisdiction.

The suspension deprives the priest from his salary or pension, his benefits and from exercising his duties as well. He noted that ecclesiastical discipline holds that a priest can be suspended for carrying out unacceptable practices, homosexuality, murder, pedophilia among others.

He, however, noted that the suspension is not the same as dismissal from the church because it is only ad cautelam, which means temporal. The temporal suspension gives room for in-depth investigations, which could vindicate the priest and have his powers and benefits reinstated or incriminate him and lead to dismissal.