ADJEI AND ANOTHER vs. THE REPUBLIC

JUDGMENT OF APALOO J.A. Apaloo J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. On 14 June 1966, both appellants were convicted of the offences of abetment of abortion and abortion respectively by Baidoo J. at the High Court, Kumasi, and each was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment with hard labour. The complainant Akosua Nyarko is a trader and a housewife of Kumasi. Until the events which gave rise to this prosecution, the complainant lived with her eighteen-year-old niece Cecilia Kodom in the same house. The latter was in August 1965, a pupil attending a primary school at Kumasi. Akosua Nyarko’s hometown is Nkoranza and the evidence shows that on or about August 1965, she paid a visit to her home at Nkoranza. She left her niece Cecilia at home. When she returned, she met Cecilia lying in bed. There was plenty of blood in her pants as well as on the bed on which she lay. When Cecilia was asked to get up, she could not. When the complainant helped her up, she noticed that Ceci...