Sampson Torgbevi, a tailor at Dabala in the South Tongu District, who allegedly entered the ancestral fetish shrine of the Adzoko Family at Deme, near Dabala, with the intent to steal, is to serve 10 years imprisonment with hard labour, on the orders of the Sogakofe Circuit Court.
According to the prosecutor, Chief Inspector S.K. Nanevi of Dabala, Torgbevi, alias Kisaku Golokpo, on the night of July 29, entered the shrine and stole a fetish stool and a kettle.
The prosecutor said Torgbevi was arrested during investigations and arraigned before the court. He was charged on two counts of unlawful entry and stealing, to which he pleaded not guilty.
The court, presided over by Mr Mustapha Logo, found Torgbevi guilty and convicted him accordingly.
Before handing down the sentence, Mr Logoh pointed that in southern Ewe-land, ancestral stools and other paraphernalia for traditional worship are invaluable assets, some of which are centuries old.
The judge stressed that Torgbevi, being an Ewe, knows or should have known that stealing a family’s ancestral stool was a serious act, saying by stealing the stool he did not steal a mere stool but the very sole, history, tradition, culture and belief of the Adzokos.
Torgbevi’s act, the judge pointed out, needed to be ruthlessly dealt with since people like him are worse than evil and thus have no place in civil society.
