Mankranso Pentecost appeal against judgement
Man and wife jailed for stealing goat
Mankranso (Ashanti Region) 19 June
2000
Members of the Church of
Pentecost, Mankranso Assembly, have filed a stay of execution at a Kumasi High
Court against the judgement of an Ahafo Ano South District Tribunal ordering
the members to pay 3.2 million cedis to Opanin Kwaku Mensah, a farmer at
Mankranso.
Pastor Stephen Asuo in charge of
the assembly said the members were aggrieved by the judgement because the
tribunal did not fully appreciate the evidence adduced before it and did not
make proper evaluation.
The tribunal had entered judgement
in favour of Opanin Mensah against the assembly for wrongly taking possession
of his house.
He said the assembly bought the
house from one Kofi Brobbey for 700 cedis. The District Pastor said the
purchase was evidenced in writing and duly stamped and registered in 1976 under
the then Mankransohene, Nana Kwasi Gyempeh.
GRi../
Asamankese (Eastern Region) 19 June 2000
A couple has been sentenced to a total of three years in prison by the Asamankese circuit court for stealing a goat belonging to their neighbour.
Kwame Opare, who pleaded guilty to the charge, bagged one year while Akosua Oye, his wife, who pleaded not guilty, was jailed for two years.
Chief Inspector John Boateng told the court, presided over by Mr S.S. Appiah, that Yaa Baby, the owner of the goat, often saw it grazing near the couple’s house. Based on that when she did not locate it on April 3, she went to the house to enquire.
Though Yaa heard the couple chatting in their room, several knocks on their door yielded no response.
This made her suspicious and she reported the matter to the Chairman of the unit committee, Baffour Odame, who, together with another member of the committee, went to the couple's house.
Just as they entered, the couple came out of their room and they were confronted over the missing goat.
When the committee members tried to enter the couple's room to verify the allegation, Akosua tried to prevent them from doing so.
Mr Odame and his colleague, however, insisted and entered the room where they saw a container filled with goat meat, and the head of the animal lying nearby, which the owner identified as that of her stolen goat.
The couple was first taken to the chief's house and handed over to the police the following day.
Opare told the tribunal that he found the goat dead on his compound so he decided to make good use of the carcass.
He pleaded guilty and was jailed for a year.
Oye, however, insisted that she knew nothing about the goat, adding that she had just returned from the riverside where she went to wash her clothes when she met the unit committee members with her husband in the house.
The presiding judge then warned Oye that she would receive a heavier sentence if witnesses testified to her involvement in the theft.
Three witnesses called by the prosecution all testified against Oye and she was accordingly jailed for two years.
GRi../