Fisherman in court for failing to honour marriage promise

Kofi Appiah, a fisherman from Idun, a suburb of Cape Coast, was on Thursday arraigned before the Cape Coast Magistrate’s Court for failing to honour a marriage promise he made to Freda Sam, a trader from Amissa-ekyir also in Cape Coast.

Freda who agreed to sacrifice the house-keeping money due her to enable the defendant to purchase more fishing equipment and even build a house, feels cheated and has requested that her dowry be paid before they would be separated.

She therefore instituted a civil action to claim compensation and have her dowry paid.

The presiding judge, Mercy Adei-Kotei adjourned the case to Friday, July 27 to enable the respondent to invite his witness to court.

Narrating her side of the story, Freda said she and Appiah had been living together since December 2005 and had two children, a girl and a boy, aged five years and 18 months respectively.

She told the court that their preparation towards marriage was underway until around 02.00 hours on Monday December 12, 2011 when a fight ensued between them.

She explained that the cause of the fight was her refusal to allow the defendant who came home late that night to have sexual intercourse with her as he failed to tell her where he had been.

Freda told the court that she reported the incident to her family, who in turn invited Appiah to explain for an amicable settlement but he never showed up until the case was reported to the Legal Aid office in Cape Coast.

Appiah again refused to see the plaintiff’s family for the problem to be solved as advised by Legal Aid, an act which made the plaintiff sue him in court.

He pleaded guilty but added that his decision not to marry her was because the plaintiff had used abusive words on him and his family.**