Death in Detention: Suspected Killings and Systemic Failures in Ghana’s Police Custody (2020-2025)

Editor’s Note: This is Part One of a four-part investigative series by Life Pulse Daily, in collaboration with The Fourth Estate, examining deaths in police custody in Ghana. This report details specific cases, analyzes patterns, and highlights the profound human and legal consequences of alleged police violence and negligence.

Introduction: A Sanctuary Turned Scene of Tragedy

Police custody is legally designated as a place of safe detention, where suspects are protected until they face the due process of law. It is not intended to be a venue for extrajudicial punishment or a setting for unexplained fatalities. Yet, behind the closed doors of police stations across Ghana, a persistent and chilling pattern of deaths has emerged, raising urgent questions about accountability, oversight, and the value of human life within the justice system.

Between October 2020 and June 2025, at least 19 individuals died while in the custody of the Ghana Police Service. This figure, compiled by The Fourth Estate through meticulous cross-referencing of media reports and official records following a stalled Right to Information (RTI) request, paints a stark picture. These are not mere statistics; each represents a shattered family, a community in mourning, and a potential failure of state institutions to uphold their fundamental duty of care.

This investigation delves into seven of these deaths across six regions, revealing narratives that consistently challenge official police accounts of suicide or natural causes. From secret burials to glaring contradictions in forensic evidence, the cases expose a system in crisis, where grieving families are met with institutional silence or implausible explanations. The central question reverberating through courtrooms, villages, and newsrooms is simple and devastating: how are people dying in police cells?

Key Points: A Summary of Findings

• At least 19 deaths in Ghana Police custody were documented between October 2020 and June 2025.
• Multiple cases involve official claims of suicide by hanging that are contradicted by forensic evidence, eyewitness accounts from fellow detainees, and physical impossibilities (e.g., inappropriate “weapons”).
• One case (Seikwa, Bono Region) involved the secret burial of a deceased suspect by police, only uncovered after leaked images forced an exhumation.
• Families face immense obstacles in seeking justice, including inaccessible evidence (CCTV footage, arrest photographs), conflicting autopsy reports, and financial barriers to litigation.
• In at least one instance (Joseph Entsie), a court awarded substantial damages (GHS 2.2 million) to the family, upholding an independent autopsy over the police’s narrative, yet the body remained in the morgue years later.
• The Ghana Police Service failed to respond to a formal request for comment on these specific cases for this report.
• The alleged methods (hanging with trousers, blankets) and circumstances suggest a pattern of questionable in-custody deaths requiring independent, transparent investigation.

Background: The RTI Request and the Search for Answers

The Stalled Information Request

In a functioning democracy, data on state power—especially its lethal application—should be publicly accessible. To establish a factual baseline, The Fourth Estate, a Ghanaian investigative journalism project, invoked the Right to Information Act. A formal request was submitted to the Ghana Police Service demanding comprehensive records of all deaths in custody from 2020 onward.

The law mandates a response within a specified period. When three months passed with no substantive reply, the request was effectively ignored. This administrative silence necessitated an alternative, labor-intensive method: forensic media monitoring and cross-verification. Reporters scoured local and national news outlets, police press releases, and court records to compile a list of names, dates, and locations. The resulting tally of 19 is almost certainly an undercount, representing only cases that garnered public attention or were reported by families.

The Legal and Institutional Framework

Ghana’s 1992 Constitution and the Police Service Act impose a clear duty of care on the police for every person in their custody. The Police Service Instructions also provide protocols for handling detainees, including medical screening and procedures for incidents. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is mandated to investigate allegations of police misconduct. However, families and lawyers consistently report difficulties in engaging these mechanisms effectively, citing delays, lack of transparency, and perceived institutional protection of officers.

The pattern of deaths—often involving young men arrested for minor offenses like traffic violations—points to potential violations of constitutional rights to life and liberty, and possibly international human rights obligations, including the UN Convention Against Torture, which Ghana has ratified.

Analysis: Examining the Cases of Joseph Entsie and Isaac Egyama

The seven cases examined in this first part reveal disturbing commonalities: official suicide narratives, family and legal challenges to those narratives, and systemic failures in evidence preservation. Two cases, detailed below, exemplify these critical issues.

Case 1: The “Suicide” of Joseph Entsie – A Tailoring Tale Unravels

Date: December 25, 2021
Location: Sekondi Police Station, Western Region
Official Police Account: Joseph Entsie, a taxi driver, was arrested around midnight on Christmas Day for allegedly knocking down a police officer with his vehicle at Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital. By dawn, he was found hanging in his cell using his own trousers. The police claimed he was wearing trousers at the time of arrest.

Family and Legal Challenge: Joseph’s wife, Grace Ofori, and local Assemblyman Samson K. Darko immediately doubted the story. Inmates interviewed by the Assemblyman gave conflicting accounts of Joseph’s condition upon arrival—some said he was staggering (suggesting intoxication or injury), others said he was fine. The taxi drivers at Fijai rank protested, leading to police warning shots.

The family secured legal aid. Lawyer Ebow Donkor procured an independent post-mortem from pathologist Dr. Isaac J. Erskine. The conclusion was unequivocal: Joseph died from blunt force trauma to the chest, leading to internal lung bleeding. This was incompatible with death by hanging.

The Police Response and Court Proceedings: Undeterred, the police produced an oversized pair of jeans (with one leg cut) as the alleged suicide weapon. A court-ordered measurement proved the jeans were twice the size of Joseph’s waist. Lawyer Donkor then demanded CCTV footage and the arrest photograph. National Security officers initially confirmed possessing the footage but later told the court it was “not capturable.” The arrest photograph, according to the charging officer, existed but could not be produced.

The police commissioned a second autopsy, which reportedly concluded suicide. However, the court upheld the first, independent autopsy as authoritative. Despite this legal victory for the family, nearly four years later, Joseph’s body remains in the morgue, a permanent testament to the unresolved trauma. His family struggles financially, his car remains impounded, and justice—in the form of criminal accountability for the responsible officer—remains elusive.

Case 2: Isaac Egyama – The Blanket That Couldn’t Hold

Date: 2023 (exact date not specified in source)
Location: Gyedu Police Cells, Mankessim, Central Region
Official Police Account: Isaac Egyama, a Disc Jockey and taxi driver, was arrested during a routine road check for allegedly refusing to stop. While in custody, he used a blanket from the cell to hang himself.

Family and Community Challenge: Isaac’s mother, Rebecca Eshiru, and relatives directly contested the physical possibility of the police story. His cousin, Kofi Buabeng, tested the blanket: “I held the blanket and tore a piece of it. It was too easy to tear.” Another relative, Kwabena Amenyin, noted the hanging point was too low and the alleged “rope” (a blanket strip) was too short to cause fatal suspension.

Rebecca described her son as happy and deeply attached to his one-year-old child, making suicide seem psychologically implausible. She alleged the police had a punitive motive, quoting the taxi owner’s failed bail attempt: “the police refused, saying they wanted to teach him a lesson.” The family was first notified not of a death, but of an illness and hospitalization, discovering the truth only at the hospital morgue.

Barriers to Justice: The family was unaware of free legal aid services. Though Isaac was eventually buried, Rebecca’s quest for the true cause of death continues. The case highlights how poverty and lack of legal knowledge can derail early efforts for accountability, allowing official narratives to solidify without challenge.

Patterns and Systemic Red Flags

From these and other cases (including the secret burial in Seikwa), several systemic failures emerge:

1. Forensic Contradiction: Independent autopsies frequently dispute police suicide rulings, pointing to trauma, asphyxiation from other causes, or the physical impossibility of the alleged hanging method.
2. Evidence Suppression/Destruction: The failure to produce CCTV footage, arrest photographs, or the purported suicide weapon (or producing clearly inappropriate items) suggests a catastrophic breakdown in evidence preservation or deliberate obfuscation.
3. Inconsistent Witness Accounts: Fellow detainees often provide accounts that contradict the official timeline or suggest the deceased was injured or distressed upon arrival, implicating pre-existing injuries or assault during arrest/processing.
4. Institutional Communication Failure: Families are often notified in a misleading manner (e.g., “illness” not death) and then stonewalled by a closed institutional culture.
5. Lack of Independent Autopsy Protocol: The reliance on police-arranged or state pathologists, whose findings are later contradicted, underscores the need for a mandatory, independent forensic pathologist system for all in-custody deaths, akin to the Coroner system in some jurisdictions.

Practical Advice: For Families, Lawyers, and Advocates

Navigating the aftermath of an in-custody death is a daunting legal and emotional battle. Based on the experiences documented, the following steps are critical:

Immediate Actions for Bereaved Families

• Secure Independent Legal Representation Immediately: Contact the Legal Aid Commission of Ghana or reputable human rights NGOs (e.g., Ghana Center for Democratic Development, Amnesty International Ghana). Do not rely on police-provided guidance.
• Insist on an Independent Post-Mortem: The family has the right to request and, if necessary, fund an independent autopsy by a pathologist of their choosing, separate from the police or state hospital system. This must be done before the body is released for burial.
• Document Everything: Write down the names and badge numbers of all police officers interacted with, dates, times, and exact words spoken. Collect contact information for any witnesses, including other detainees or community members.
• Preserve Physical Evidence: If shown any item claimed to be a suicide weapon (trousers, blanket, rope), do not touch it. Document it with photos if possible, and immediately note its condition (e.g., “too flimsy,” “wrong size”) for your lawyer.
• Demand Official Documentation: Formally request, in writing, the arrest sheet, custody record book entries, medical screening forms (if any), and any incident reports related to the deceased. Use the RTI Act if necessary.

Strategic Legal Approaches

• Challenge the Narrative Early: In court or at the inquest, highlight every inconsistency: the physical mismatch of clothing, the implausible hanging mechanics, the conflicting inmate testimonies, and the missing/contradicted evidence (CCTV, photos).
• Pursue Dual Tracks: simultaneously pursue a criminal complaint (for unlawful killing, perjury, etc.) with the IPCC and Director of Public Prosecutions, and a civil suit for damages (wrongful death, negligence) against the Ghana Police Service and the state.
• Leverage Media and Civil Society: Documented cases like Joseph Entsie’s show that public scrutiny and media attention can pressure institutions to act and prevent a case from being buried. Partner with credible journalists and NGOs.
• Seek International Mechanisms if Domestic Routes Fail: If all local avenues (courts, IPCC) are exhausted without remedy, consider petitions to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights or UN human rights treaty bodies, citing violations of the African Charter and ICCPR.

Recommendations for Police Reform (Advocacy)

• Mandatory Automatic Autopsies: Legislation requiring that every death in police custody triggers an immediate, independent forensic autopsy by a pathologist from outside the police service’s usual network.
• Body Cameras & Unbroken CCTV: Full, functional CCTV coverage in all cell blocks and processing areas, with secure, tamper-proof storage. Footage must be automatically preserved and produced upon any custodial incident.
• Standardized, Witnessed Entry Procedures: Every arrestee must be photographed and medically screened upon arrival, in the presence of a neutral witness (e.g., a family member, legal representative, or independent monitor), with records signed by all parties.
• Independent Custody Visitors: Empower and resource a robust scheme of unannounced, independent visits to police stations by community panels to inspect conditions and detainee welfare.
• Centralized, Public Custody Death Registry: Establish a publicly accessible, real-time registry of all deaths in police custody, with basic details (name, date, location, preliminary cause) published within 72 hours, as a transparency and accountability measure.

FAQ: Common Questions About Custodial Deaths in Ghana

How many people die in Ghana police custody each year?

There is no official, transparent, annual public tally. The figure of at least 19 deaths from Oct 2020-June 2025 is based on media and court record verification by The Fourth Estate. The true number is likely higher due to unreported cases.

What is the most common official explanation for these deaths?

The most frequently cited cause is suicide by hanging, often using improvised items like trousers or blankets. Other explanations include sudden illness or collapse. These narratives are frequently contested by families and evidence.

Can the police investigate themselves in these cases?

Technically, the IPCC is the independent body. However, families and lawyers report a lack of confidence in the process, citing delays, lack of transparency, and the perception that police investigators protect their own. Truly independent investigations, often involving external forensic experts and prosecutors, are widely seen as