NYAMENEBA AND OTHERS vs. THE STATE [1965]DLSC1835

Date	1965-12-06
Suit No.
Citation No.	[1965]DLSC1835

OLLENNU JSC

AKAINYAH JSC

SIRIBOE J.S. C.

APPELLANTS IN PERSON.

J.N.K. TAYLOR SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY FOR THE RESPONDENT.

[1965]DLSC1835
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													<main id="main" class="content" style="min-height: 60rem" >NYAMENEBA AND OTHERS<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;vs. <o:p></o:p>THE STATE <o:p></o:p>[SUPREME COURT]<o:p></o:p>[1965] GLR 723<o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">

DATE:
6 DECEMBER 1965.<o:p></o:p>

</div>COUNSEL:&nbsp;&nbsp; <o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">

APPELLANTS IN PERSON.<o:p></o:p>

</div>CORAM:
<o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">

OLLENNU, AKAINYAH AND SIRIBOE JJ.S. C.<o:p></o:p>

</div><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>JUDGMENT OF OLLENNU J.S.C.<o:p></o:p>Ollennu
J.S.C. delivered the judgment of the court. This is a very interesting case
both as well with respect to the facts as with respect to the law involved. The
appellants were tried at the criminal session, Takoradi, by a circuit judge
with the aid of assessors, on an indictment which charged some of them with
possessing Indian hemp, some with smoking Indian hemp, and all of them with
cultivating Indian hemp.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>The
appellants are members of a certain religious sect, and live in a place called
Princess Town in the Western Region. For the last four years or more prior to
their arrest they have been growing certain herbs and been using them for all
sorts of things, e.g. they have been burning a herb as incense for invocation
at their worship, making soup out of it, boiling and using it themselves or
administering it to other people as medicine for all kinds of ailment with
success. They alleged that the father of one of them, upon spiritual
inspiration, discovered these herbs and the sect had ever since used them
publicly to the good of all the members and their associates. They call the
herbs, “The herbs of life.” Here it is appropriate to quote in full the
evidence-in-chief given by the second appellant in his defence to the charges:<o:p></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;border:none;mso-padding-alt:
31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">“I am a
farmer. I live at Princess. My leaves are leaves of life. I smoke the leaves
which give me wisdom, understanding and strength so that I don’t do after some
other people live. I don’t steal, I don’t lead a bad life. I don’t give false
evidence against others. I am able to conform to the ten Commandments. When I
smoke, I preach the Gospel to others so that they lead good lives. When I smoke
the leaves, I don’t drink. In Genesis Chapter 2 verse 9 the leaves are referred
to.”<o:p></o:p>Continually
the appellants had, at their public worship, condemned the chief and his
elders, and particularly the youth of the town, for indulging in alcoholic and
spirituous drinks, and for smoking cigarettes; these practices they alleged
lead the people to bad lives which shut the gates of heaven against them; on
the contrary they preached that if the youth would abandon drinks, cigarettes
and the consequent bad life and would use the herbs of life, they would surely
go to heaven when they died.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>The
appellants, as it would appear, make themselves a nuisance to all people
outside their sect, and on Christmas Day, 25 December 1963, some of the elders
complained to the chief about their conduct and requested him, the chief, to
take steps to stop this molestation. The chief thereupon sent some of his elders
to the first, second, third and fifth appellants to remonstrate with them; the
appellants on the contrary tried to convince the representatives of the chief
about the alleged herbs of life, produced and showed some to them, and smoked
some in their presence. The representatives suspected that the herbs might be
Indian hemp, and took the appellants to the ahenfie. There the first, second,
third and fifth appellants insisted that theirs are herbs of life, and not
Indian hemp, whatever Indian hemp might be. The evidence of the chief and his
elders disclose that none of them, the villagers, really knew what the stuff
was; they merely suspected, from what they had heard of Indian hemp, that it
may be Indian hemp. The party, i.e. representatives of the chief, the first
three and the fifth appellants, and a crowd returned to the house of the first
appellant, and there the fourth, sixth and seventh appellants came and
introduced themselves as members of the sect, and produced some more of the
stuff to the crowd. The chief caused the appellants to be taken to the nearest
police station at Agona, to report the incident. There too the appellants
maintained that the herbs in question are herbs of life, and could not on any
account be what the police and the others called Indian hemp. Upon invitation
of the appellants the police accompanied the appellants to a farm where they
were growing the herbs.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>From the
time that the appellants have been known to possess these herbs, up to the time
they appeared before us, the appellants have consistently maintained that their
herbs are herbs of life and cannot by any means be the thing called Indian
hemp. As part of their case, the prosecution tendered in evidence the chemist’s
analytical report on the herbs certifying that the herbs are Indian hemp. The
appellants did not object to the admission of the </main>