Palm-wine tapper jailed, fined for stealing 25 fowls

Asamankese (E/R), Feb. 24, GNA - Emmanuel Tettey, also called "Ashe Wo More", a palm-wine tapper, who admitted stealing 25 fowls which he killed and ate with a friend, has been jailed one month in hard labour and fined four million cedis by a circuit court at Asamankese. Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector S K Atidzon said Madam Afi Togbe, a trader at Kusi also keeps poultry at her husband's farm near Tettey's akpeteshie distilling base.

He said for sometime, Afi detected that some of her fowls were missing and tried as she did, she could not arrest the culprit and therefore caused a gong- gong to be beaten in the nearby villages warning of dire consequences if the thief or thieves did not own up. Afraid of the gong-gong message, the prosecutor said Tettey confessed to a sister of Afi that he and a friend, now at large, stole a total of 25 of the fowls, which they had consumed. He said Tettey's employer who heard this then negotiated with Afi and promised to compensate her with two million cedis but when, after two weeks not a pesewa was paid and Tettey was no where to be found, a report was made to the police.

During investigations, however, Tettey's master paid 500,000 cedis and when no further payments was forthcoming, Tettey was arrested.