Two palm wine tappers jailed over cocoa theft

The Tarkwa District Court one has sentenced two persons to six months imprisonment each for conspiracy to commit crime and stealing.

The convicts Micheal Akyea Mensah, 40 and Joseph Agbeti 49 are both palm wine tappers and pleaded guilty to the offence.

The Prosecutor, Inspector Faustina Celestina Anaman told the Court, presided over by Mr. Jonathan Nunoo that the complainant Kwame Dziwonu is a cocoa farmer, who resides in the same neighborhood with the convicts at Mile five, a farming community near Nsuaem.

She said on September 29, around 1400 hours, the complainant engaged the services of the convicts to carry his dried cocoa beans from his farm at Mile 5 to the road side for an agreed fee of GHc 20 Ghana cedis each.

Inspector Anaman said the complainant later observed that some of his cocoa beans had been stolen.

She said the complainant started making his own investigations and one Ibrahim Seidu informed him (complainant) that Agebti was seen conveying some cocoa beans on his bicycle to a cocoa shed at Mile 5.

Upon the tip-off, the complainant invited Mensah to meet Nana Yakubu, the Ewe chief at his palace for questioning.

She said while at the palace, a mob from the town stormed the palace and demanded that they released Mensah for them to lynch him.

The chief, who was terrified by the mob’s action, called in the police leading to Mensah’s arrest.

Agbeti was later arrested on October 12 and was also handed over to the police.

The convicts admitted the offence in their caution statements and said they sold the cocoa beans to Mr. Daniel Frenuku, an assistant purchasing clerk at Mile 5.

Mr. Frenuku was invited to the police station, and he confessed that Mensah and Agbeti sold the 24 kilograms cocoa beans to him for GHc 132.00.