Alleged Demolition Of Building - Chief, 20 Others Face Trial

Nana Amoateng I, Chief of Kegyase near Abuakwa in Kumasi, is in a brush with the law, for allegedly destroying a storey building belonging to his opponent.

Nana Amoateng and 20 of his subjects are facing prosecution in a Kumasi Circuit Court charged with two counts of planning to cause damage and causing damage.

Nana Amoateng and 16 of the other suspects failed to appear before the court presided over by Mr R. K. Kogyapwah last Monday but the four others who were in the dock were remanded in prison custody to reappear on September 10, 2007.

The chief, through a nephew, produced a medical report to the court that he was indisposed but the judge stated that the medical report was not authentic enough. Mr Kogyapwah, ordered the chief to appear in court at the next adjourned date.

Chief Inspector Winfred Salia, who gave the background to the case, said Nana Amoateng, who was enstooled as chief of Kegyase on March 29, 2007, upon his enstoolment started selling lands that had already been sold by his predecessor, Nana Anane Kusi, who occupied the stool for seven years.

Nana Kusi, who was the complainant in the case, found this improper and reported the case to Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, who in turn ordered that an announcement be made in the media within a period of 21 days to notify all persons who had bought the lands in question from Nana Amoateng to submit their documents to the Otumfuo's Land Secretariat to verify the authenticity of the documents.

Nana Amoateng, according to the prosecution, had since harboured bitterness against the complainant.

The Chief Inspector said at about 5.50 p.m. on August 31, 2007, Nana Amoateng led a group of young men numbering 20 to the complainant's building site and violently demolished his wall and a newly built storey building.

Nana Kusi reported the case to the Abuakwa police station after which the alleged culprits were arrested.
The prosecutor said while the police were taking the culprits minus the chief to the station, 16 of them escaped.

The remaining four were then transferred to the Ashanti Divisional CID but were granted bail because the police did not want to detain them for more than 48 hours.

He told the court that information available to him indicated that as of the time proceedings were going on, some people were at the complainant's site destroying property and pleaded that the four be remanded.

Counsel for the accused, in his argument, refuted the allegation that the complainant was the chief for seven years, saying that his client succeeded Nana Pumpuni II, who was on the Kegyase stool for 15 years.

He submitted that the complainant demolished the building himself and later concocted the story that his clients did so.

He added that the four who were arraigned were not even at the site where the alleged demolition was said to have taken place.

He, therefore, pleaded that his clients be given bail because there were men of substance to stand surety and that since the police had finished their investigations into the matter, his clients were not likely to influence investigations as the case may be.

The judge refused to grant bail in spite of counsel's arguments on the grounds that the chief was not present in court, while the police had not arrested the 16 others on the run.

Story by Patricia Siaw