New Juaben Queenmother convicted again

Yaa Daani, queenmother of the New Juaben Traditional Area, has been convicted for the sixth time by a Koforidua Circuit Court.

Yaa Daani was arraigned before the court on a charge of offensive conduct after she hurled insults at a businessman, Baffour Topen Sriboe Boateng.

She was found guilty and subsequently made to sign a bond to be of good behaviour for one year or in default serve a three-month jail term.

The facts of the matter are that on March 24, 2014, Baffour Topen Sriboe Boateng was on a parcel of land, near the New Juaben Palace at Srudai in the company of two officers from town planning when Nana Yaa Daani appeared at the scene.

She described Mr Boateng as “foolish man, a thief who has never worked but went about stealing stool lands and erected a signboard on the said plot.

Baffour Topen Sriboe Boateng reported the matter to the police, but the accused person refused to honour the invitation of the police.

She initially refused to appear before the court but did so after court summons were issued.

Yaa Daani appeared before the court after almost two months.

She argued that the complainant initially called her a prostitute and that she replied in equal measure.

Delivering her judgment, Cynthia Wiredu said the narration of the queenmother was inconsistent.

Mrs. Wiredu said a court could depend on one witness if he or she is not biased and has no intention to misrepresent facts, stressing that the accused person has not been truthful to the court.

She has distorted facts and could, therefore, not be trusted that the complainant had first insulted her. Yaa Daani’s driver, whom she called as witness, had told the court he was in the car with the glasses rolled up so could not hear anything, it noted.

The testimonies of one of the town planning officers, Evelyn Ofori and Detective Augustine Boakye Agyakwa, indicated no wrongdoing on the part of the complainant.

The Koforidua Circuit Court B, presided by Ebenezer Osei Darko, earlier this year, found the queenmother guilty after she assaulted the same complainant at a funeral at the Jackson Park for allegedly dancing like a chief.