The Ajumako District Magistrate Court presided over by Mr Kwesi Boakye Enimil, has sentenced a 32-year-old carpenter, Kwesi Abaka, to 15 months imprisonment in hard labour for stealing a pig valued at GH¢ 130.
He pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced upon his own plea.
Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector G.K. Awuye told the court that the complainant, Mr Martin Yeboah Asante, a poultry and livestock farmer, stayed in the same area with the accused at Breman Benin in the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District.
That on November 19 this year, the complainant left for Mankessim in the Central Region putting his poultry under the care of his wife.
According to the prosecutor, the accused took advantage of the absence of the complainant and killed one of his pigs which he carried in a sack to his residence and later sought for a prospective buyer.
Chief Inspector Awuye said the buyer happened to be a regular customer of the complainant.
The customer, Mr Kwame Asiedu later phoned the complainant to ascertain whether he had detailed the accused to sell any pig, to which the complainant responded in the negative.
The complainant and the customer alerted the police while the customer went in to bargain over the pig.
Some minutes later, the police the complainant and the customer went to arrest the accused in his house, where they found the blood-soaked sack on his veranda. Upon police interrogation the accused admitted having stolen the pig and was arraigned before the court.
The prosecutor told the court that the youth at Breman Benin and surrounding villages had resorted to stealing fresh cocoa beans and other items and that the court should deal drastically with the accused to serve as a deterrent to the youth in the area.