KPALGA-NA AND OTHERS v. FUSHEINI AND OTHERS

JUDGMENT OF ANSAH J.

The plaintiffs' claims against the defendants are for:

"(1) General and special damages for unlawful arrest and imprisonment.

(2) General and special damages for assault and battery.

(3) ¢84,000 being the value of two bicycles unlawfully destroyed.

(4) An order of recovery of seven bags of groundnuts and three [p.329] thousand yam seedlings unlawfully seized or their value of ¢98,000 and ¢15,000 respectively.

(5) ¢72,000 and ¢2,700 being the value of nine doors and nine windows respectively unlawfully destroyed.

(6) Damages for trespass.

(7) An order of recovery of the plaintiffs' property and property of the first plaintiff for the Ghana Education Service, particulars of which are set out in the statement of claim or their value which were unlawfully taken by the defendants and have been converted by them."

The plaintiffs' case as revealed by their pleadings and evidence at the trial was that one day in or around March 1987, the first and second plaintiffs were returning to Gbolung from a funeral when they were confronted by all the defendants save the first. The said defendants alleged that the first and second plaintiffs had revealed secrets of Gbolung to their adversaries at Tolon where they attended the funeral. Their punishment for these acts of betrayal was that they were to be killed on the orders of the first defendant. When they were arrested the two bicycles they were riding were seized from them. Then the first plaintiff managed to extricate himself from the grips of his captors and run away to safety. Before these the defendants fired a gun to which he similarly replied. The second plaintiff was not able to escape and he was arrested and taken to the first defendant together with the bicycles. After that the defendants went to his room and collected all his things, made up of his articles of clothing, a cooking stove, bowls of rice and curtains; they also went to his farm and burnt his yam seedlings. In addition, six windows of his house were broken.

The second plaintiff was the person who went to the funeral with the first plaintiff and he confirmed the evidence of his colleague on what took place on their way from the funeral. He said he was arrested by the defendants and taken to the first defendant's house where he was tied and put in a room under an armed guard overnight. Then the eight defendants burnt their two bicycles. One Seidu also destroyed his wrist watch.

According to the third plaintiff, he saw