Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Chief Justice nominee, has defended harsh sentencing meted out to persons who steal a bunch of plantain in the rural areas.
The acting Chief Justice used his own personal experience during his parliamentary vetting to defend sentencing equating a rural woman’s stolen plantain to an urban car theft.
According to Baffoe-Bonnie, when a magistrate sentences someone to three years for stealing a bunch of plantain, people in Accra might scoff, but do they know what that bunch of plantain means to a woman in rural areas?
Speaking during his vetting by Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Monday, November 10, Justice Baffoe-Bonnie explained, “So, while admitting that there are some people who shouldn’t be there. There are also some people who are there who have to be there.
Honourably, we’re always talking about a bunch of plantains and creating on eggs, my mother is a Catholic, was eclectic house tell the story”.
He added, “My mother was a catholic, you know, these old ladies how when this was in my time, the Catholic priest was a white person. So at the end of the year, my mother wants to go and then harvest a particular plantain that has nurtured over the year.
My mother was going into their farm every morning with a bent back. This young one was sitting under a tree playing drafts every day my mother passed by him to go to the farm. Now, one year on, it’s time for harvest. My mother wants to harvest the plantain to come and give to the reverend minister. The white priest who speaks Latin, and then this young man has gone there. You know, when they go there, they don’t cut the plantain. They move from the top. So my mother will walk all the way to the place before realising that their plantain has been harvested”.
Baffoe-Bonnie added, “We sit in Accra here when the magistrate decides to send the boy to prison for three years, we sit in Accra here and say they stole only a bunch of plantains. Do you know what it means? What bunch of plantain means to my mother is like stealing your car. You see. So, I mean, there are so many reasons. The magistrate is a judge; they have these sentencing guidelines they have them”.
Also, Paul Baffoe-Bonnie has justified his reasoning behind sentencing notorious armed robber Atta Ayi to 70 years in prison.
According to Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, the lengthy sentence for Atta Ayi was to protect his family.
He explained that if he had given Ataa Ayi 30 years, when he came back, his family would be the first the notorious armed robber would have attacked.
The acting Chief Justice explained, “I gave him 70 years. And what I told myself was that if Atta Ayi was given 30 years and he comes back, my family would be the first he would attack. By the time he comes back after 70 years, I will be dead and gone,” he said.
Watch the video below:
“When a magistrate sentences someone to three years for stealing a bunch of plantain, people in Accra might scoff. But do you know what a bunch of plantain means to a woman in rural areas? It’s like stealing a car in the city.”
— CITI FM 97.3 (@Citi973) November 10, 2025
— Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Chief Justice Nominee… pic.twitter.com/2NbwHkiTMP