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Crime & Punishment of Friday, 29 April 2005

Source: Chronicle

Elusive Thomas Broni

...Court rules on adultery case today
After numerous adjournments, an Accra High Court will today, April 29, give judgment in a case in which the former Deputy Minister of Interior, Mr. Thomas Broni, has been accused of committing adultery with a business woman Madam Martha Nkrumah.

Chronicle gathered that the court would still be passing the judgment, though both Mr. Broni and Madam Nkrumah, had not entered their defence, because they had been notified from the commencement of the case on June 18, last year.

In a petition filed before the Court jointly against his wife and Mr. Broni, Mr. Tony Osei Tutu, a Management Consultant, accused Mr. Broni of committing adultery with his wife and by that he finds it impossible to continue living with her.

He said as a result of this alleged adulterous union between his wife and the minister, he has suffered loss and damages and therefore prayed to the court for the dissolution of the marriage between them. As part of his claim, which includes general damages, cost and such others as the court may consider fit, Tutu said, he wants his children back.
In April 1995, according to Tutu, he got married to Martha customarily at Abeka Lapaz in Accra, after he had complied with all the requirements under the Akan customary marriage. He said after the marriage, they both lived at Caprice, Kpehe, a suburb of Accra ,where they were blessed with their two children, Tony Osei Ankamah and Maame Dufie Osei Tutu.
However, Osei Tutu said following the alleged adulterous relationship between his wife and the minister, Broni rented a residential premise for his wife at Mallam Atta, Accra Newtown, and paid an initial sum of ?9 million himself for the place.
He said since April 2002, his wife has deserted him and moved out of their matrimonial home to the rented premises with their children. According to Tutu an attempt by him to take custody of his children was met with instigation from Broni for Martha to report him to the police to which she obliged and that alone, cause his arrest, detention and humiliation and there after his children were taken from his custody.
He said also following their alleged adulterous relationship Broni, using his position as a Deputy Minister in the government, arranged with the Ghana National Procurement Agency to supply his wife with commodities on regular basis, as a means of keeping her in some kind of cash liquidity for purposes of retaining her loyalty and making her dependent on him.
He said his wife has also behaved in such an unreasonable manner that he cannot reasonably be expected to live with her. Tutu, who said there has never been any prior threat on their marriage before said attempt to reconcile their differences has fail, not even the interventions of elders, and family members could bring them back together.
In an earlier petition dated in August 2002, Tutu said that sometime in 2001, Broni met his wife at the shop of one Kwaku Appiah, a nephew of his. ?He followed up with visits even to my house during my absence from home.? Tutu said.
He said he has been able to withstand these traumatic events calmly so far by means of prayers and also by the realization that his party was in power and is headed by a man the nation adore.