Nana Anku Dododza III
A Koforidua High Court has acquitted and discharged Nana Anku Dododza III, Odikro of Abomasarefo in the Kwahu Afram Plains North, of the charge of forging a colonial document with intent to defraud and claim ownership of the Abomasarefo land.
According to the Court which was additionally presided by Justice Henry A. Kwoffie, Nana Anku Dododza is not guilty of all the four counts of offences charged against him and accordingly acquitted and discharged him.
The charges
Nana Anku Dododza was charged with the offences of forgery of document, possessing forged documents, uttering forged documents and deceiving a public officer contrary to the Criminal Offences Act 1960 (Act 29).
[ads1]The particulars of the offences indicated that the Odikro, with intent to defraud, forged a document titled, “The Report of Enquiry into the Akwamus and Kwahus Land dispute, 1845” and endeavoured to overreach the National Archives officials and the Committee of Enquiry set up by the Kwahu Traditional Council and obtained judgement in his favour giving possession of the Abomasarefo land to him.
The facts
According to historical account, the grandfather of Nana Anku Dododza Didieye in 1840s served in the palace of Nana Atipah of the Asiedu Boafo Bretuo family of Kwahu Pepease in the Eastern Region.
Nana Atipah named his grandfather as Kweku Didieye and assimilated him into the Asiedu Bretuo family and later made him overseer of the Abomasarefo village.
In 1990, Nana Anku Dododza Didieye, a descendant of Kweku Didieye, was enstooled Odikro of Abomasarefo when the position became vacant but according prosecution, soon after his installation, the Odikro hatched a plan to dispossess the Bukuruwa stool of the Abomasarefo village and its environs.
The prosecution said in pursuit of his plan, the Odikro went to the National Archives several times and obtained certain historical documents of the Good Coast from which he compiled a fictitious document titled “The Report of Enquiry into the Akwamus and Kwahus land dispute, 1845”.
According to prosecution, a portion if the forged document contained receipt falsely alleging that Abomasarefo land and its environs were bought by the Odikro’s grandfather, Kweku Didieye, for £250. He sent the document to the National Archives claiming it was an ancient document prepared by one Major Cochrane in the Gold Coast Regiment and found in an animal horn in the shrine at Abomasarefo.
The prosecution again said Nana Anku Dododza Didieye later went back to the National Archives and obtained an authenticated copy of the said document to use it as his ‘weapon’ to claim the Abomasarefo land from the Bukuruwa stool in 1991.
After years of litigation and at different levels, several witnesses and evidences were presented by both prosecution and defense teams to the court presided by Justice Henry A. Kwoffie who swore to hear the protracted litigation to its logical conclusion, after passing through the hands of six judges.
Ruling
Over a year after counsels for the two parties had presented their addresses to the court, the judgement, given under the signature of Justice Kwoffie, stated that the prosecution failed to prove the guilt of the accused person beyond reasonable doubt that he authored the 1845 document.
The court also ruled that the said 1845 document was not a forgery but it was evidently clear that the National Archives received it from the colonial office since 1959 and therefore acquitted and discharged Nana Anku Dododza Didieye after finding him not guilty of all offence charged against him.
