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LASSEY J.S.C.
The appellant, a queenmother in Ashanti, was convicted at the District Magistrate’s Court, Kumasi, on a count wherein the statement of offence was “obstructing an officer from taking possession of stool property: contrary to section 56 (4) of Act 81 and Executive Instrument No. 46 of 1963 made under section 56 of Act 81 of 1961.” Section 56 (4) of the Chieftaincy Act, 1961 (Act 81), makes it an offence for “A person who wilfully obstructs any authority or officer who has been ordered to take possession of Stool property under this section.” Executive Instrument No. 46 of 1963 was made by the Minister of Justice on 10 April 1963, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by subsection (1) (c) of section 56 of Act 81 whereby he ordered one Kwame Opoku Agyeman, District Commissioner, Agona, to take possession of the Ntonso stool property and thereafter to hand it over to one Nana Yiadom Boakye-Ansah, Ntonsohene. The said executive instrument was tendered in evidence at the…