A fierce fight in the bush at Ajumako Besease over the missing portion of the carcass of a stolen goat has exposed the culprits.

The culprits, Kobina Mensah, also known as Nkrumah, Richard Amoah, and Kobina Bedu, claimed the goat was sick and belonged to one of them.

They have since appeared before the Ajumako Magistrate Court on a charge of stealing. They pleaded not guilty and asked for bail.

But the court, presided over by Mr A. A. Asiedu, turned down their request and remanded them in police custody to help the police arrest their accomplice, one Atta Panyin, who is on the run.

Inspector M. E. Akorli told the court that on April 11, this year, the owner of the goat, who is a co-tenant of Mensah at Besease, detected that his billy-goat, valued at ?200,000, was missing. He caused a gong gong to be beaten but that yielded no result.

He, however, had information that Mensah and Amoah were fighting over a piece of goat meat.

Inspector Akorli said the complainant confronted Mensah, who denied any knowledge of the missing goat. But Amoah spilled the beans when he revealed that two weeks earlier, he had accompanied Mensah to the latter’s farm, where he saw Atta Panyin slaughtering a goat with Bedu lying on the ground beside him.

He quoted Amoah as saying that Atta Panyin and Mensah cooked some of the meat with rice which they all ate on the farm. Thereafter, they shared the rest of the meat among themselves.

According to the prosecutor, Atta Panyin and Amoah took their share home while Mensah and Bedu cooked theirs and kept them in the bush, ostensibly to eat them the following day.

The following day, however, they could not find the meat on the farm. Mensah highly suspected Amoah of having filched the hidden meat and confronted him at home, resulting in a fierce fight between them.

Inspector Akorli said a report was made to the police, who arrested the three. They admitted in their caution statement that they partook of the meat but denied any involvement in the theft.