Court orders farmer to buy chief 3 sheep

Elmina (C/R), Feb. 18, GNA- A district court at Elmina, on Tuesday ordered a 22-year-old farmer to pacify the chief of his village, with whom he was litigating, with three sheep, for insulting him and calling him a "senseless man".

Edward Broni, alias Kodwo Dabenda, from Ekutuasue near Elmina, who pleaded guilty to three counts of offensive conduct, is on a 50 million cedis bail and is awaiting sentence on March 16.

The court, presided over by Mr Kwame Ohene Essel, cautioned against unnecessary chieftaincy disputes, which he said sometimes resulted in the loss of lives.

The case for the prosecution was that that Broni, who is also the nephew of Nana Kodwo Gyenim Ampem, III, is a member of a faction in the village litigating with his uncle over the stool.

It said the faction, instituted destoolment charges against the chief but the charges were dismissed on February 4 and that Broni who was peeved, rained insults on Nana Ampem and his two wives without any provocation.

The prosecution said Broni among others, called the chief a "senseless man", and that he had been bewitched by his two wives, whom he also called "slaves".

In another development, the court cautioned and discharged a 38-year-old cobbler, Samuel Yeboah from Ankwandah, also near Elmina, for assaulting a seven-year-old boy for teasing him that his bicycle looked like a push-truck.

Yeboah pleaded guilty.

The case for the prosecution was on February 1 this year, while the boy and his friends were returning from school, they saw Yeboah's bicycle parked by his house and began to tease that it looked like a push-truck or a helicopter.

The prosecution said this infuriated Yeboah and he attempted to catch one of the children, but they managed to flee and that the next day he caught one of the boys when was passing by his house and beat him both with his hands and a stick.

The boy's parents made a report to the police who issued a medical form for the victim to be sent to the hospital.