AFOTEY vs. THE REPUBLIC

JUDGMENT OF SOWAH C.J. The facts of the appeal are simple and straightforward. The appellant and the complainant are a brother and a sister and live in their family house which has in it a water tap from which the family draws water. On the day in question, the appellant’s wife and another sister of his were drawing water from the tap when the complainant went to fetch water. According to her after her sister and the brother’s wife had drawn six buckets of water, she connected a water hose to the tap to start drawing her share of water. Their younger sister started insulting her then their brother, the appellant, came out and started beating her up. The appellant’s version was that his two sisters were fighting over whose turn it was to fetch water when he came out to separate them. Unfortunately the complainant bit his finger and a fight ensued. Before he could report to the police, she had preceded him and made a report. There are two aspects of this ...