Section 296 - Throwing rubbish in street

A person commits a criminal offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding ten penalty units who

(a) in a town place, causes or permits to be placed, a carrion, filth, dirt, refuse, or rubbish, or any other offensive or otherwise unwholesome matter, on a street, yard, an enclosure, or open space, except at a place set apart by the local authority or the health officer for that purpose; or

(b) in a town does an act which constitutes a nuisance in a public place or an open space, or in a space which is an appurtenance of or adjoins a dwelling-house; or

(c) wilfully defaces a lawful public notice, or removes the notice from a place where it is lawfully affixed; or

(d) without the consent of the owner or occupier of it affixes or attempts to affix a placard, paper, or thing on a building, wall, fence, pillar, or post, or writes on, soils, or marks the building, wall, fence, pillar or post; or

(e) repealed;

(f) unlawfully releases cattle lawfully impounded, or pulls down, damages, or destroys the pound where cattle are lawfully impounded; or

(g) in a town wilfully or wantonly, and after being warned to desist, makes a loud or an unseemly noise in a manner that causes or is liable to cause annoyance or disturbance of a person; or

(h) in a town, without a licence in writing from the Minister or a local authority beats or plays a drum, gong, tom-tom, or any other similar instrument of music between eight o’clock at night and six in the morning; or

(i) in a town throws or discharges a stone or any other missile in or into a public place; or

(j) is drunk and is disorderly or behaves violently or indecently in a prison or Court or public place; or

(k) behaves irreverently or indecently in a church, chapel, mosque, or any other place appropriated for religious worship; or

(l) disturbs or molests a minister of religion while celebrating a religious rite or office in a public place, or a person assisting or attending at the celebration of that rite or office; or

(m) behaves irreverently or indecently or insultingly at or near a funeral or in a near a public burial ground during the burial of a body; or

(n) wantonly extinguishes the light of, or destroys or damages, a street lamp; or

(o) wilfully obstructs or impedes or delays a person employed in the working of a telegraph or in the delivery of a telegram, in the execution of that duty; or

(p) by obstructing a public way, wilfully prevents or hinders the free passage of any other person or of a vehicle; or

(q) without the consent of the local authority or the Ghana Highway Authority, places or leaves a thing in a public way to the obstruction, danger or annoyance of users of that public way; or

(r) being the occupier of a land or building situate in a town, does not clear and keep free from dirt, underbush, underwood, weeds, high grass, rubbish, rags, broken bottles, refuse, and an offensive matter, filling up the holes with stones, gravels or other like materials, the streets or roads, at the front-back, and sides of it, with the drains, gutters, and channels on it; and, if the building is unoccupied, the owner shall for this purpose be deemed the occupier; but where there are two lots of land contiguous to a street, road, drain, gutter, or channel, and facing each other, the occupier of each lot is responsible for keeping clean only the half of the street or road, and the drain, gutter, or channel nearest to the occupier’s lot; or

(s) in a town wilfully or negligently causes or permits a vehicle, or a thing carried by the vehicle, or cattle, to damage a drain, ditch, or trench, at the side of a street, or a bridge, or a part of it respectively; or

(t) in a town, without the written consent of the local authority or the Ghana Highway Authority, wilfully displaces or takes up or damages the pavement, stones, or material of a public way, or attempts to change or obstruct an outer course; or

(u) assembles with other persons in a public place, or in an open space near a public place, for an idle, a vicious, or a disorderly purpose, or otherwise than in the regular performance, or in pursuance, of a lawful calling or object, to the annoyance or obstruction of a passenger or person frequenting the public place, or of a person living in the neighbourhood of the public place or open space and does not move away when required by a constable; or

(v) suffers to be at large or unmuzzled, a ferocious dog of which that person is the owner or has the charge, or sets on or urges a dog to attack or put in fear any other person or cattle; or

(w) after public notice given by a person having authority in that behalf directing dogs or other animals to be confined on account of suspicion of rabies, suffers a dog or an animal specified in the notice to be at large during the time mentioned in that notice; or

(x) being called upon by an officer of a local authority, or of the Ghana Highway Authority or a constable, to give aid of extinguishing or staying the progress of a fire, refuses or neglects to give that aid of which that person is capable; or

(y) wilfully and indecently exposes the body of that person in a public place or in the public’s view, or exposes the body of that person in a place with intent to insult any other person; or

(z) in a town for which there is a public slaughter-house appointed by or under an enactment, slaughters cattle or dresses the carcass for human consumption, within the limits of which the slaughter-house is appointed, except in that slaughter-house, unless by the licence of the district assembly.