BROBBEY AND OTHERS v. THE REPUBLIC
1981
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- TWUMASI J
Areas of Law
- Criminal Law and Procedure
- Evidence Law
- Constitutional Law
1981
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Twumasi J, sitting on appeal from the Bibiani District Court Grade 1, reviewed convictions against four policemen for causing harm, causing damage, and stealing under Act 29. The prosecution9s seven witnesses and medical reports showed minor abrasions to the complainant and his wife, but key testimony from the sixth witness supported lawful arrest after the complainant sold Pall Mall cigarettes above the controlled price and resisted. Applying Act 29 s.36, Act 30 s.9, and Constitution 1979 art. 21(2), the judge held officers could use necessary force and the magistrate failed to assess whether force exceeded what resistance required. On theft, evidence was too thin and appropriation under s.125 was not proved. The appeal was allowed and all four officers, including the nonappellants, were acquitted and discharged.
JUDGMENT OF TWUMASI J.
Twumasi J. On 28 March 1980, four policemen were arraigned before the District Court Grade 1, Bibiani, on two counts of causing harm, contrary to section 69; one count of causing damage, contrary to section 172; and one count of stealing, contrary to section 124 respectively, of the Criminal Code, 1960 (Act 29). The trial [p.611] commenced instantaneously but did not end that day wherefore the accused were remanded on bail. The prosecution closed their case on 11 April 1980 when the trial resumed. The accused suffered convictions on all the four counts according as they were charged. The punishment meted out to each accused was one month's prison term with hard labour and an order to refund the money alleged to have been stolen. The first and fourth accused petitioned the High Court for redress of their grievances, contending that true justice was not meted out to them by the learned trial magistrate.
The circumstances that culminated in the criminal proceedings were related by seven witnesses called by the prosecution. The first prosecution witness said he was at his store when four policemen came there. One of them, being the first accused, accused him of having sold one packet of Pall Mall cigarettes to one Ofori at sixteen cedis instead of two cedis. He said he denied the alleged offence but the first accused held him and told him to accompany him to the charge office.
He, the first prosecution witness, said he resisted the arrest and struggled with the first accused. While this was going on, he said the other three policemen joined him and they all beat him up and tore his pair of knickers and pants. He said an amount of ¢1,325 was in his pocket during the incident and that this money had been stolen and he could not see the pair of knickers. He said his wife who rushed to his rescue was bitten by the first accused.
The second prosecution witness, a farmer, said he was passing by the first prosecution witness store when he saw four policemen heckling the first prosecution witness' but he left the scene instantly. The first prosecution witness' wife gave evidence which was substantially the same as that given by her husband. The fifth prosecution witness also a farmer, followed the line of evidence given by the first prosecution witness and the fourth prosecution witness that the policemen beat the first prosecution witness and bit his wife, but unlike the first prosecution witness and his wife, he did not tell the court wh