AWORTWI vs. NWANSU

JUDGMENT OF ABOAGYE J. In this case the defendant appeals against the judgment of the District Magistrate Grade I, Sekondi. granting the plaintiff custody of his two children by her. The plaintiff, prison officer in Ghana,is a Nigerian and between the years 1960 and 1964 he had two issues with the defendant, a Fante. The children were aged five-and-a-half years and four years respectively at the time the case was heard by the district court in February this year. According to the plaintiff, he and the defendant were married according to Fante custom and the children were born in wedlock. The version of the defendant, on the other hand, was that she lived in an illicit association with the plaintiff and had the two children with him. An attempt was made by the plaintiff to marry her but it never materialised. She had admittedly lived with the children up to the time judgment was given against her. It is clear from the evidence of the defendant that she resisted the plaintiff’s claim.....