FRANCOIS J.A.
The three respondents and the first appellant all belong to the Kona family of Sunkwa. The first respondent is the head of family and the first appellant, the twafohene, occupying the family stool. A strained relationship had existed between the parties for some time. This stemmed mainly from a constitutional difference arising from the purported deposition of the first appellant as twafohene. At the time of the incidents complained of there was no love lost between them.
Early in the New Year of 1972, that is, on 2 January., the respondents were marched off from their homes at Sunkwa to a police station at Nkwantanum, some eight miles away, on charges preferred against them by the first appellant in connection with an alleged theft of 150 bags of cocoa from his farm. The respondents were kept at the police station from 8.00 a.m. till their release on bail at 4 p.m. They had thereafter to report weekly at the police station for a period of seven weeks. Later the charges w…