[1973]DLCA2337 • April 9, 1973 • Court of Appeal
OMANE vs. POKU
The late Kofi Boakye, an Ivorian national, was sent to Ashanti as a child to avoid conscription during WWI. He lived in Ashanti for most of his life, married customarily to two women, and died intestate in 1965 owning modest property including two cocoa farms at Apatriatom. The plaintiff, also of Ivorian origin and a cousin of the deceased, was appointed customary successor by the landlord family (Brentuo clan) and claimed title to the farms. The defendant claimed the farms were gifted to him by the deceased before death. The deceased's son, Kwabena Akuto, joined the suit claiming the farms as family property under Ivorian patrilineal succession law.
read moreThe late Kofi Boakye was born in Adjeikro in the Ivory Coast and was a national of that country. The evidence shows that in order to avoid being conscripted into the first world war, his grandfather sent him to this country. He was then very young—apparently under ten years of age. He lived in one or two places in Ashanti, and finally made his home at Kona where he died intestate about September 1965. He combined farming with the work of a fetish priest and although he cannot be said to have been a person of large means, he died possessed of modest property. Two cocoa farms which he owned were the subject-matter of the suit which culminated in this appeal. As is only to be expected, at some time after Boakye came of age, he contracted customary marriages with two women in Ashanti and begat children by them both. They are Ama Serwah and Yaa Akyaa. One of his children a male, is Kwabena Akuto. He is the issue of the deceased with Ama Serwah. Akuto seems to have got on well with h.....