BOGYA v. BOAKYE

JUDGMENT OF ANSAH-TWUM J.

As per his writ of summons, the plaintiff claims against the defendants (¢40,000) damages for slander. The plaintiff is a farmer and he lives at Wantram in the Wassa Amanfi Traditional Area. According to the plaintiff, he belongs to the stool or royal family of Wantram.

The plaintiff pleaded in paragraphs (6) and (9) of his statement of claim that:

"(6) That after this incident the defendant caused a gong-gong to be beaten informing the large crowd that gathered that the plaintiff is a thief who has been stealing other people's livestock.

(9) The stool of Wantram which should have been occupied by the plaintiff has now eluded him because of these vicious allegations."

The plaintiff's case is that about three years ago, the defendant went to his, the plaintiff's village near Wantram and told the plaintiff that he, the defendant, had lost two of his sheep and had been looking for same. The plaintiff said he readily told the defendant that the sheep strayed to his farm and destroyed his cocoa pods. He therefore caught and confined the two sheep at his village. The plaintiff further told the court that he disclosed to the defendant that he did not know the owner of the sheep and thinking that the sheep belonged to the people who go about buying sheep, he treated them as stray sheep. He did later, however, release the sheep to the defendant.

About three days later, it was reported to him, the plaintiff, at his village that the defendant had caused gong-gong to be beaten concerning his lost sheep. The plaintiff said he therefore went to the defendant's village, also near Wantram, and asked him why he had caused the gong-gong to be beaten about the sheep again.

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The defendant told him he did not request the gong-gong to be beaten in the manner complained of by the plaintiff. The plaintiff continued that even though he did not believe the defendant's denial, he went back to his village. The plaintiff said after that incident, any time he went to Wantram town he heard people hooting at him and calling him a thief. He did, he said, as a result of that gong-gong beating, lose the stool of Wantram which he should be occupying now. He has, in addition, lost the respect the people of Wantram had for him as a royal member of the community in which he lived.

When the plaintiff was cross-examined by learned counsel for the defendant, he stated, among other things, that he heard earlier that the defendant had caused the gong-gong