OKUNOR J.: This is an appeal from the decision of His Honour, Judge Twumasi sitting in the Circuit Court, Cape Coast, on 29 August 1977. The respondent, then accused, was, in that judgment, acquitted and discharged on four counts of “unlawful receipt of stool land revenue” contrary to sections 17 (1) and 27 of the Administration of Lands Act, 1962 (Act 123).
The prosecution had alleged that on diverse dates in 1975, the respondent who was, and I believe, still is, the chief of Assin Bereku, had collected various sums of money from persons to whom he granted portions of Assin Bereku stool lands for farming and that such moneys were “revenue” as contemplated by the Act, and collectable only by the minister; receiving the moneys therefore without the authority of the minister amounted to an offence for which the court was requested to convict the appellant. This request the learned trial judge refused to accede to; after examining the evidence and the law on the matter he came to the conc…